§ 120. — Procedure if no electronic database provided.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 4USC120]
TITLE 4--FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES
CHAPTER 4--THE STATES
Sec. 120. Procedure if no electronic database provided
(a) Safe Harbor.--If neither a State nor designated database
provider provides an electronic database under section 119, a home
service provider shall be held harmless from any tax, charge, or fee
liability in such State that otherwise would be due solely as a result
of an assignment of a street address to an incorrect taxing jurisdiction
if, subject to section 121, the home service provider employs an
enhanced zip code to assign each street address to a specific taxing
jurisdiction for each level of taxing jurisdiction and exercises due
diligence at each level of taxing jurisdiction to ensure that each such
street address is assigned to the correct taxing jurisdiction. If an
enhanced zip code overlaps boundaries of taxing jurisdictions of the
same level, the home service provider must designate one specific
jurisdiction within such enhanced zip code for use in taxing the
activity for such enhanced zip code for each level of taxing
jurisdiction. Any enhanced zip code assignment changed in accordance
with section 121 is deemed to be in compliance with this section. For
purposes of this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that a home
service provider has exercised due diligence if such home service
provider demonstrates that it has--
(1) expended reasonable resources to implement and maintain an
appropriately detailed electronic database of street address
assignments to taxing jurisdictions;
(2) implemented and maintained reasonable internal controls to
promptly correct misassignments of street addresses to taxing
jurisdictions; and
(3) used all reasonably obtainable and usable data pertaining to
municipal annexations, incorporations, reorganizations and any other
changes in jurisdictional boundaries that materially affect the
accuracy of such database.
(b) Termination of Safe Harbor.--Subsection (a) applies to a home
service provider that is in compliance with the requirements of
subsection (a), with respect to a State for which an electronic database
is not provided under section 119 until the later of--
(1) 18 months after the nationwide standard numeric code
described in section 119(a) has been approved by the Federation of
Tax Administrators and the Multistate Tax Commission; or
(2) 6 months after such State or a designated database provider
in such State provides such database as prescribed in section
119(a).
(Added Pub. L. 106-252, Sec. 2(a), July 28, 2000, 114 Stat. 628.)
Effective Date; Application of Amendment
Section effective July 28, 2000, and applicable only to customer
bills issued after the first day of the first month beginning more than
2 years after July 28, 2000, see section 3 of Pub. L. 106-252, set out
as a note under section 116 of this title.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in sections 116, 117, 118, 121, 123,
124, 125, 126 of this title.
