SEC. 21.1.3. COMMUNICATIONS USERS TAX. (Title and Section Amended by Ord. No. 179,686*, Eff. 3/15/08.) (a) There is hereby imposed a tax upon every Person with a billing or service address in the City of Los Angeles who uses Communications Services, including services for intrastate, interstate or international Communications Services, to the extent permitted by state and federal law. The tax imposed by this section shall be at the rate of nine percent of the charges made for those Communications Services and shall be paid by the Person paying for those services. However, as to the charges made for services to any independent telemarketing agency, as defined in Section 21.47(b) of this Code, incurred solely in performing the functions of an independent telemarketing agency, the tax imposed by this section shall be at the rate of five percent of the charges made for those services. (b) The tax imposed in this section shall be collected from the Service User by the Person providing the Communications Services. The amount of tax collected from the 26th day of each Month through the 25th day of the following Month shall be remitted to the Director of Finance on or before the 26th day of the following Month, or, at the option of the Person required to collect and remit the tax, an estimated amount of tax collected, measured by the billings of the previous Month, shall be remitted to the Director of Finance on or before the 20th day of each Month. (c) Charges subject to the Communications Users Tax include, but are not limited to, the following: connection, reconnection, termination, movement, or change of telecommunications services; late payment fees; detailed billing; voice mail and other messaging services; directory assistance; access and line charges; universal service charges; and regulatory, administrative and other cost recovery charges. (d) Exemptions. Except as otherwise provided in this article, Communications Services shall include all Communications Services for which there is a charge, regardless of the means or technology used to provide those services. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection (a), the tax imposed under this section shall not be imposed upon any Person for using Communications Services under the circumstances set forth below: 1. News services.