Established in 1999, the Telecommunications Tax Program centralizes the licensing procedures for
telecommunications companies and standardizes the collection rates and dates.
As authorized by state law and on behalf of the participating municipalities, the Municipal Association of South
Carolina administers the program for collecting business license taxes due from telecommunications companies doing
business within the participating municipalities’ corporate limits. Participating municipalities adopt a standard
ordinance for telecommunication company business license taxes.
The tax is based on the gross income from retail telecommunication services for the preceding calendar or fiscal
year. Taxable services are those that either originate or terminate in the municipality and are charged to a
service address within the municipality. The tax is due regardless of where these services are billed or paid and
on which a business license tax has not been paid. The gross income excludes taxes collected for any other
governmental entity (i.e. 911, access fees, sales tax). Gross income from mobile telecommunications services
includes only revenues from the fixed monthly recurring charges of customers whose service address is within the
municipality’s corporate limits.