Chapter 3.08
UTILITY OCCUPATIONAL TAX
Sections:
3.08.010 Tax levied on entities selling electricity.
3.08.020 Tax levied on entities selling cable, audio or visual signals.
3.08.030 Tax levied on entities selling water or providing sewer services.
3.08.040 Tax levied on entities selling garbage or refuse hauling, transport or disposal.
3.08.050 Tax levied on telephone businesses.
3.08.052 Tax levied on entities selling or furnishing telephone service.
3.08.054 Cellular telephone service-Income allocation and administration.
3.08.060 Commencement of new rates and tax-Remittance.
3.08.080 Disposition of revenues.
3.08.010 Tax levied on entities selling electricity.
There is levied an occupational tax upon every person or entity engaged in or carrying on the business of selling or furnishing electricity in the sum of six percent of the gross income derived from the sale of electricity within the corporate limits of the town.
(Ord. 224 §2, 1989).
3.08.020 Tax levied on entities selling cable, audio or visual signals.
There is levied an occupational tax upon every person or entity engaged in or carrying on the business of selling or furnishing cable, audio or visual signals in the sum of eight percent of the gross income derived from the sale of such cable services within the corporate limits of the town.
(Ord. 421 §3, 2002; Ord. 224 §3, 1989).
3.08.030 Tax levied on entities selling water or providing sewer services.
A. There is levied an occupational tax upon every person or entity engaged in or carrying on the business of selling or furnishing water in the sum of seventeen and one-half percent of the gross income derived from the sale of water within the corporate limits of the city.
B. There is levied an occupational tax upon every person or entity engaged in or carrying on the business of providing or furnishing sewer collection and disposal services; in the sum of seventeen and one-half percent of the gross income derived from the providing of sewer services within the corporate limits of the city.
(Ord. No. 627, § 1, 12-19-19; Ord. No. 557, §1, 11-6-14; Ord. No. 510, § 1, 12-2-10; Ord. 421 §4, 2002: Ord. 370 §1, 1999: Ord. 224 §4, 1989).
3.08.040 Tax levied on entities selling garbage or refuse hauling, transport or disposal.
There is levied an occupational tax upon every person or entity engaged in or carrying on the business of selling or furnishing garbage or refuse hauling, transport, or disposal, in the sum of seventeen and one-half percent of the gross income derived from the sale of such services within the corporate limits of the town.
(Ord. No. 627, § 1, 12-19-19; Ord. No. 557, §1, 11-6-14; Ord. 421 §5, 2002; Ord. 224 §5, 1989).
3.08.045 Definitions.
The following definitions shall apply through out this chapter.
A. “Cable television services” means the one-way transmission of video programming and associated non-video signals to subscribers together with subscriber interaction, if any, which is provided in connection with video programming.
B. “Cellular telephone service” means two-way voice and data telephone/telecommunications system based in whole or substantially in part on wireless radio communications and which is not currently subject to regulation by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). Cellular telephone service includes cellular mobile service. The definition of cellular mobile service includes other wireless radio communications services such as specialized mobile radio (SMR), personal communications services (PCS) and any other evolving wireless radio communications technology which accomplishes the same purpose as cellular mobile service.
C. “Gross proceeds of sale” or “gross income of business” means the value proceeding or accruing from the sale of tangible personal property and/or for services rendered, without any deduction on account of the cost of property sold, the cost of materials used, labor costs, interest, discount paid, delivery costs, taxes, or any other expense whatsoever paid or accrued and without any deduction on account of losses.
D. “Light and power business” means the business of operating a plant or system for the generation, production or distribution of electrical energy for hire or sale and/or for the wheeling of electricity for others.
E. “Sewerage system business” means and includes:
1. Sanitary sewage disposal sewers and facilities, including without limitation on-site or off-site sanitary sewer facilities consisting of an approved septic tank or septic tank systems, or any other means of sewage treatment and disposal;
2. Combined sanitary sewage disposal and storm or surface water drains and facilities;
3. Storm or surface water drains, channels and facilities;
4. Outfalls for storm drainage or sanitary sewage and works, plants, and facilities for storm drainage or sanitary sewage treatment and disposal;
5. Any combination of or part of any or all of such facilities.
F. “Solid waste” or “wastes” means all putrescible and nonputrescible solid and semisolid wastes including, but not limited to, garbage, rubbish, ashes, industrial wastes, swill, sewage sludge, demolition and construction wastes, abandoned vehicles or parts thereof, and recyclable materials.
G. “Solid waste collection business” means every person who receives solid waste or recyclable materials for transfer, storage, or disposal including but not limited to all collection services, public or private solid waste disposal sites, transfer stations, and similar operations.
H. “Telecommunications company” includes every corporation, company, association, join stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town owning, operating or managing any facilities used to provide telecommunications for hire, sale, or resale to the general public within this state.
I. “Telegraph business” means the business of providing telegraphic communication for hire.
J. “Water distribution business” means the business of operating a plant or system for the distribution of water for hire or sale.
(Ord. 421 §2, 2002).
3.08.050 Tax levied on telephone businesses.
There is levied an occupational tax upon every person or entity engaged in or carrying on a telephone business in the sum of six percent of the gross income derived from the sale of such telephone business within the corporate limits of the town. Gross operating revenues for this purpose shall not include charges which are passed on to the subscribers by a telephone company pursuant to tariffs required by regulatory order to compensate for the cost to the company of the tax imposed by this chapter.
“Telephone business” means the business of providing access to a local telephone network, local telephone network switching services, toll service, or coin telephone services, or providing telephonic, video, data or similar communication or transmission for hire, via a local telephone network, toll line or channel, or similar communication or transmission system. It includes cooperative or farmer line telephone companies or associations operating an exchange. “Telephone business” does not include the providing of competitive telephone service, nor the providing of cable television service.
“Competitive telephone service” means the providing by any person of telephone equipment, apparatus, or service, other than toll service, which is of a type which can be provided by persons that are not subject to regulation as telephone companies under RCW Title 80 and for which a separate charge is made.
(Ord. 229, 1990; Ord. 224 §6, 1989).
3.08.052 Tax levied on entities selling or furnishing telephone service.
There is levied an occupational tax upon every person or entity engaged in or carrying on the business of selling or furnishing cellular telephone service in the sum of six percent of the gross income derived from the sale of such services within the corporate limits of the town.
(Ord. 421 §6, 2002).
3.08.054 Cellular telephone service-Income allocation and administration.
A. Allocation of income.
1. Service address. Payments by a customer for cellular telephone service from telephones without a fixed location shall be allocated among taxing jurisdictions to the location of the customer’s principal service address during the period for which the tax applies.
2. Presumption. There is a presumption that the service address a customer supplies to the taxpayer is current and accurate, unless the taxpayer has actual knowledge to the contrary.
3. Roaming. When the cellular telephone service is provided while a subscriber is roaming outside the subscriber’s normal cellular network area, the gross income shall be assigned consistent with the taxpayer’s accounting system to the location of the originating cell site of the call, or to the location of the main cellular switching office that switched the call.
B. Dispute resolution. If there is a dispute with any other entity as to the service address of a customer who is receiving cellular telephone services and the dispute is not resolved by negotiation between the parties, then the dispute shall be resolved by submitting the issue for settlement to the Association of Washington Cities (AWC). Once taxes on the disputed revenues have been paid to one of the contesting parties, the cellular telephone service company shall have no further liability with respect to additional taxes, penalties, or interest on the disputed revenues, so long as it promptly changes its billing records for future revenues to comport with the settlement facilitated by the AWC.
C. Authority of mayor. The mayor, or her designee is authorized to represent the town in negotiations with other entities for the proper allocation of cellular telephone service taxes imposed pursuant to this section.
D. Rate change. No change in the rate of tax upon persons engaging in providing cellular telephone service shall apply to business activities occurring before the effective date of the change, and no change in the rate of the tax may take effect sooner than sixty days following the enactment of the ordinance establishing the change. The town clerk/treasurer shall send to each cellular telephone service company at the address of record a copy of any ordinance changing the rate of tax upon cellular telephone service promptly upon its enactment.
(Ord. 421 §7, 2002).
3.08.056 Exemptions.
The tax levied pursuant to this chapter is in lieu of any excise, privilege or occupational tax based on gross proceeds under any other provision of the Mattawa Municipal Code with respect to activities specifically within the provisions of this chapter. Nothing herein shall be construed to exempt persons taxable under the provisions of this chapter from tax under any other provision of the Mattawa Municipal Code with respect to activities other than those specifically within the provisions of this chapter.
(Ord. 421 §8, 2002).
3.08.058 Deductions.
In computing the tax imposed by this chapter, the following items may be deducted from the measure of the tax:
A. The amount of credit losses actually sustained by taxpayers whose regular books are kept upon an accrual basis.
B. Charges by a taxpayer engaging in a telephone business to a telecommunications company for telephone service that the purchaser buys for the purpose of resale.
C. That portion of the gross income derived from charges to another telecommunications company for connecting fees, switching charges, or carrier access charges relating to intrastate toll telephone services, or for access to, or charges for, interstate services.
D. Adjustments made to a billing or to a customer account or to a telecommunications company accrual account in order to reverse a billing or charge that had been made as a result of third-party fraud or other crime and was not properly a debt of the customer.
E. Amounts derived from business which the Town of Mattawa is prohibited from taxing under the Constitution or laws of this state or of the United States.
(Ord. 421 § 9, 2002).
3.08.060 Commencement of new rates and tax-Remittance.
A. The occupational tax rate on the selling of electricity, and the providing of telephone services, (except for cell phone service) remain at six percent and shall continue to be imposed and collected as established by the provisions of Ordinance 224.
B. The occupational tax rate established herein on the selling or furnishing of cable, audio or visual signals; on the selling of water and/or providing sewer services; and on the selling of garbage collection or refuse hauling, transportation or disposal services shall be effective on January 1, 2003.
C. The occupational tax rate established herein on the selling or furnishing of cellular telephone service shall become effective sixty days from and after the date of the passage of this section [December 19, 2002], or on March 1, 2003, whichever is later.
(Ord. 421 §10, 2002: Ord. 224 §7, 1989).
3.08.070 Records required.
It is the duty of all persons or entities subject to said tax to provide accurate records accounting for all moneys received and the computation of the tax, which shall be submitted with payment. All records shall be open to inspection by the council or its agents.
(Ord. 224 §8, 1989).
3.08.080 Disposition of revenues.
All taxes collected under this chapter shall be paid to the town clerk-treasurer and placed in the general fund for the restricted purpose of establishment and maintenance of a police department for the town.
(Ord. 224 §9, 1989).