I know that seeking the advice of an attorney is the most correct answer here but short of paying a boatload in my preliminary research I’m trying to get a general understanding if there is already a clear cut line that triggers the need to register and collect taxes. Does anyone have experience or knowledge on whether you need to register as a telecom provider and potentially collect telecom taxes/fees for simply hosting a freepbx for a client. The client would ultimately purchase their own sip trunks and DIDs and pay directly for that including all taxes and fees.
Would the answer be different if the pbx was hosted in their own cloud and I only managed it?
Lastly what if an appliance was installed locally on the clients premise. Again in all 3 scenarios the client supplies the sip lines so any call ever leaving the pbx would technically be covered by the fees/taxes charged for the actual sip service. The latter 2 scenarios would classify my charges more as server/equipment “maintenance” rather than providing VoIP services. I just don’t know at what point I might be labeled as a “telecom provider”
While Tom is 100% that you are not a voice provider a lot of states sales tax laws apply to datacenter services and hosting services. You do not need a lawyer to provide that input. Your local CPA can answer that question for you.
Thanks Tom and Tony, i do get a bit hung on “voice services” since wouldn’t the pbx itself potentially be labeled as “voice services”?
Assuming I’m overthinking the above, it then fair to say that anyone who includes the PSTN connection as part of the service would then be classified as a telecom provider? For example if I were to sell phone extensions or a full pbx solution that came with their own assigned phone would then constitute being a telecom provider….
Just trying to ensure that the moment the customer directly purchases their own PSTN connection and pays the taxes and fees on that it sort of clears me from being a “telecom provider” even though the pbx service I provide still acts as an intermediary and facilitates the connection between the end user and the PSTN.
The PBX is not regulated by the FCC. You are not the one providing the service that connects to the PSTN which is all the FCC has jurisdiction over for telecom taxes.
Thanks, I apologize that I failed to say that when I’m hosting it, I would be hosting it in my own cloud environment although maybe it was implied, not sure if that makes any difference. Regardless in my opinion it’s all the same. I would be running a pbx to basically permit their internal extension to work and the client would still be feeding it with their own trunks. I’m just afraid the fcc sees it differently in that the extension-to-pbx may still be considered “interconnected VoIP” which does ultimately provide intra/interstate communications even though it ultimately does it via the trunks provided by a different provider. If my client had 2 physical locations would that make the pbx “intrastate” by default? Sorry to beat a dead horse here but I want to make sure I fully understand.
I reached out to the USAC and their response was that they believed I need to file a 499. Not sure if there’s a disconnect there? Referencing this site https://www.usac.org/service-providers/contributing-to-the-usf/who-must-contribute/
It would seem that someone running/providing the pbx for a customer might qualify as: “interconnected VoIP” or a “private service provider” or even the “included but not limited to”… with the only exemption that might apply is if you are “Systems integrators that derive less than five percent of their systems integration revenues from the resale of telecommunications” but the moment they say the word “resale” that implies to me that you need to be reselling telecommunications in the first place which I’m not. Just wondering if at the moment I am running the pbx and essentially selling access into it, vs just maintaining a pbx that the customer owns and operates that might be a distinction.