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.