By Oliveira                                           H.B. No. 1411

         75R4633 CBH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to application of the sales and use tax to telephone

 1-3     prepaid calling cards.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 151, Tax Code, is amended

 1-6     by adding Section 151.0037 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 151.0037.  "TELEPHONE PREPAID CALLING CARD".  "Telephone

 1-8     prepaid calling card" means a card or other item, including an

 1-9     access code, that represents the right to make one or more

1-10     telephone calls for which payment is made in incremental amounts

1-11     and before the call is initiated.

1-12           SECTION 2.  Section 151.009, Tax Code, is amended to read as

1-13     follows:

1-14           Sec. 151.009.  "TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY".  "Tangible

1-15     personal property" means personal property that can be seen,

1-16     weighed, measured, felt, or touched or that is perceptible to the

1-17     senses in any other manner, and, for the purposes of this chapter,

1-18     the term includes a computer program and a telephone prepaid

1-19     calling card.

1-20           SECTION 3.  Section 151.0103, Tax Code, is amended to read as

1-21     follows:

1-22           Sec. 151.0103.  TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.  (a)  For the

1-23     purposes of this title only, "telecommunications services" means

1-24     the electronic or electrical transmission, conveyance, routing, or

 2-1     reception of sounds, signals, data, or information utilizing wires,

 2-2     cable, radio waves, microwaves, satellites, fiber optics, or any

 2-3     other method now in existence or that may be devised, including but

 2-4     not limited to long-distance telephone service.  The term does not

 2-5     include:

 2-6                 (1)  the [The] storage of data or information for

 2-7     subsequent retrieval or the processing, or reception and

 2-8     processing, of data or information intended to change its form or

 2-9     content; or

2-10                 (2)  the sale or use of a telephone prepaid calling

2-11     card.

2-12           (b)  The sale or use of a telephone prepaid calling card is

2-13     considered to be a sale or use of tangible personal property. [are

2-14     not included in "telecommunications services."]

2-15           SECTION 4.  (a)  This Act takes effect on the first day of

2-16     the first calendar quarter beginning on or after the earliest date

2-17     that it may take  effect under Section 39, Article III, Texas

2-18     Constitution.

2-19           (b)  The change in law made by this Act does not affect taxes

2-20     imposed before the effective date of this Act, and the law in

2-21     effect before that date is continued in effect for purposes of the

2-22     liability for and collection of those taxes.

2-23           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 3-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its

 3-2     terms, and it is so enacted.