Collection of tax

(a)

The seller is required and it shall be his/her duty to render to each purchaser bills covering all such purchases made, and the amount of such public service tax shall be entered and shown by the seller as a separate item on each such bill and shall become due and payable to the city whenever such bill becomes due and payable under the rules and regulations of the seller. Each such bill shall include purchases applicable to but one location, or to but one family or business where more than one family or business uses separate metered services at one location in the city.

(b)

The purchaser is required and it shall be his/her duty to pay such public service tax to the seller, as agent to the city, at the time of the payment of each such bill, and in the event that the purchaser shall fail, neglect or refuse to pay such public service tax to the seller when such bill becomes due and payable, the seller is hereby empowered, to the extent permissible by state statute or regulatory agency with jurisdiction, to discontinue forthwith to make any further sales or to render any further service to the purchaser until the total amount, including such public service tax, shown upon such bill has been paid in full. The seller is hereby authorized and required and it shall be his/her duty to collect such public service tax from such purchaser at the time of the payment of each such bill and to remit the same to the finance department in accordance with the provisions of section 56-30; provided that the seller shall have the right and privilege of assuming and paying such public service tax himself/herself in lieu of collecting the same from the purchaser, and that whenever the seller shall fail or neglect to exert reasonable efforts to collect such public service tax from the purchaser within one year from the date of the bill on which such tax was or should have been imposed, the seller shall be deemed to have assumed such public service tax himself/herself and shall thereupon become liable for the payment of the amount thereof to the city to the same extent as if such public service tax had been collected from the purchaser, without further recourse to the purchaser therefor.

(c)

This section shall be applicable to all bills for electricity, metered gas, bottled gas, fuel oil, telecommunications service and water service.

(d)

For the purpose of compensating the seller of telecommunications services, the seller shall be allowed one percent of the amount of the tax collected and due to the municipality in the form of a deduction from the amount collected for remittance. The deduction shall be allowed as compensation for keeping of records and collection of tax and remitting the same.

(Ord. No. 10263, § 1, 4-30-87; Code 1980, § 55-14; Ord. No. 13676, § 2, 4-27-17)