For purposes of the taxes authorized by this Act:
"Amount paid" means the amount charged to the taxpayer's service address in such municipality regardless of where such amount is billed or paid.
"Department" means the Illinois Department of Revenue.
"Gross charge" means the amount paid for the act or privilege of originating or receiving telecommunications in such municipality and for all services and equipment provided in connection therewith by a retailer, valued in money whether paid in money or otherwise, including cash, credits, services and property of every kind or nature, and shall be determined without any deduction on account of the cost of such telecommunications, the cost of the materials used, labor or service costs or any other expense whatsoever. In case credit is extended, the amount thereof shall be included only as and when paid. "Gross charges" for private line service shall include charges imposed at each channel termination point within a municipality that has imposed a tax under this Section and charges for the portion of the inter-office channels provided within that municipality. Charges for that portion of the inter-office channel connecting 2 or more channel termination points, one or more of which is located within the jurisdictional boundary of such municipality, shall be determined by the retailer by multiplying an amount equal to the total charge for the inter-office channel by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of channel termination points that are located within the jurisdictional boundary of the municipality and the denominator of which is the total number of channel termination points connected by the inter-office channel. Prior to January 1, 2004, any method consistent with this paragraph or other method that reasonably apportions the total charges for inter-office channels among the municipalities in which channel termination points are located shall be accepted as a reasonable method to determine the taxable portion of an inter-office channel provided within a municipality for that period. However, "gross charge" shall not include any of the following:
"Interstate telecommunications" means all telecommunications that either originate or terminate outside this State.
"Intrastate telecommunications" means all telecommunications that originate and terminate within this State.
"Person" means any natural individual, firm, trust, estate, partnership, association, joint stock company, joint venture, corporation, limited liability company, or a receiver, trustee, guardian, or other representative appointed by order of any court, the Federal and State governments, including State universities created by statute, or any city, town, county, or other political subdivision of this State.
"Purchase at retail" means the acquisition, consumption or use of telecommunications through a sale at retail.
"Retailer" means and includes every person engaged in the business of making sales at retail as defined in this Section. The Department may, in its discretion, upon application, authorize the collection of the tax hereby imposed by any retailer not maintaining a place of business within this State, who, to the satisfaction of the Department, furnishes adequate security to insure collection and payment of the tax. Such retailer shall be issued, without charge, a permit to collect such tax. When so authorized, it shall be the duty of such retailer to collect the tax upon all of the gross charges for telecommunications in this State in the same manner and subject to the same requirements as a retailer maintaining a place of business within this State. The permit may be revoked by the Department at its discretion.
"Retailer maintaining a place of business in this State", or any like term, means and includes any retailer having or maintaining within this State, directly or by a subsidiary, an office, distribution facilities, transmission facilities, sales office, warehouse or other place of business, or any agent or other representative operating within this State under the authority of the retailer or its subsidiary, irrespective of whether such place of business or agent or other representative is located here permanently or temporarily, or whether such retailer or subsidiary is licensed to do business in this State.
"Sale at retail" means the transmitting, supplying or furnishing of telecommunications and all services and equipment provided in connection therewith for a consideration, to persons other than the Federal and State governments, and State universities created by statute and other than between a parent corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries or between wholly owned subsidiaries for their use or consumption and not for resale.
"Service address" means the location of telecommunications equipment from which telecommunications services are originated or at which telecommunications services are received by a taxpayer. In the event this may not be a defined location, as in the case of mobile phones, paging systems, and maritime systems, service address means the customer's place of primary use as defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Conformity Act. For air-to-ground systems and the like, "service address" shall mean the location of a taxpayer's primary use of the telecommunications equipment as defined by telephone number, authorization code, or location in Illinois where bills are sent.
"Taxpayer" means a person who individually or through his or her agents, employees, or permittees engages in the act or privilege of originating or receiving telecommunications in a municipality and who incurs a tax liability as authorized by this Act.
"Telecommunications", in addition to the meaning ordinarily and popularly ascribed to it, includes, without limitation, messages or information transmitted through use of local, toll, and wide area telephone service, private line services, channel services, telegraph services, teletypewriter, computer exchange services, cellular mobile telecommunications service, specialized mobile radio, stationary two-way radio, paging service, or any other form of mobile and portable one-way or two-way communications, or any other transmission of messages or information by electronic or similar means, between or among points by wire, cable, fiber optics, laser, microwave, radio, satellite, or similar facilities. As used in this Act, "private line" means a dedicated non-traffic sensitive service for a single customer, that entitles the customer to exclusive or priority use of a communications channel or group of channels, from one or more specified locations to one or more other specified locations. The definition of "telecommunications" shall not include value added services in which computer processing applications are used to act on the form, content, code, and protocol of the information for purposes other than transmission. "Telecommunications" shall not include purchases of telecommunications by a telecommunications service provider for use as a component part of the service provided by such provider to the ultimate retail consumer who originates or terminates the taxable end-to-end communications. Carrier access charges, right of access charges, charges for use of inter-company facilities, and all telecommunications resold in the subsequent provision of, used as a component of, or integrated into, end-to-end telecommunications service shall be non-taxable as sales for resale. Prepaid telephone calling arrangements shall not be considered "telecommunications" subject to the tax imposed under this Act. For purposes of this Section, "prepaid telephone calling arrangements" means that term as defined in Section 2-27 of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act.
35 ILCS 636/5-7