HRS § 237-29.8 — Call centers; exemption; engaging in business; definitions


[§237-29.8] Call centers; exemption;
engaging in business; definitions. (a) This chapter shall not apply to
amounts received from a person operating a call center by a person engaged in
business as a telecommunications common carrier for interstate or foreign
telecommunications services, including toll-free telecommunications,
telecommunications capabilities for electronic mail, voice, and data
telecommunications, computerized telephone support, facsimile, wide area
telecommunications services, or computer-to-computer communication.
(b) The establishment of a call center in this
State by any person shall not be used by itself by the State to find that any
other part of the person's business is engaged in business in this State for
the purposes of this chapter. Gross income or gross proceeds received by a
call center for customer service and support shall be exempt from the measure
of taxes imposed by this chapter.
(c) The department, by rule, may provide that
the person providing the telecommunications service may take from the person
operating a call center a certificate, in a form that the department shall
prescribe, certifying that the amounts received for telecommunications services
are for operating a call center. If the certificate is required by rule of the
department, the absence of the certificate in itself shall give rise to the
presumption that the amounts received from the sale of telecommunications services
are not for operating a call center.
(d) As used in this section:
"Call center" means a physical or
electronic operation that focuses on providing customer service and support for
computer hardware and software companies, manufacturing companies, software
service organizations, and telecommunications support services, within an organization
in which a managed group of individuals spend most of their time engaging in
business by telephone, usually working in a computer-automated environment;
provided that the operation shall not include telemarketing or sales.
"Customer service and support" means
product support, technical assistance, sales support, phone or computer-based
configuration assistance, software upgrade help lines, and traditional help
desk services.
"Telecommunications common carrier"
means any person that owns, operates, manages, or controls any facility used to
furnish telecommunications services for profit to the public, or to classes of
users as to be effectively available to the public, engaged in the provision of
services, such as voice, data, image, graphics, and video services, that make
use of all or part of their transmission facilities, switches, broadcast
equipment, signalling, or control devices.
"Telecommunications service" or "telecommunications"
means the offering of transmission between or among points specified by a user,
of information of the user's choosing, including voice, data, image, graphics,
and video without change in the form or content of the information, as sent and
received, by means of electromagnetic transmission, or other similarly capable
means of transmission, with or without benefit of any closed transmission
medium.
(e) This section shall not apply to gross
proceeds or gross income received after June 30, 2010.