77-27,143. Municipalities; sales and use tax laws; administration; termination; databases; required.

(1) The administration of all sales and use taxes adopted under the Local Option Revenue Act shall be by the Tax Commissioner who may prescribe forms and adopt and promulgate reasonable rules and regulations in conformity with the act for the making of returns and for the ascertainment, assessment, and collection of taxes imposed under such act. The incorporated municipality shall furnish a certified copy of the adopting or repealing ordinance to the Tax Commissioner in accordance with such rules and regulations as he or she may adopt and promulgate. For ordinances passed after October 1, 1969, the effective date shall be the first day of the next calendar quarter which is at least one hundred twenty days following receipt by the Tax Commissioner of the certified copy of the ordinance. The Tax Commissioner shall provide at least sixty days' notice of the change in tax to retailers. Notice shall be provided to retailers within the municipality. Notice to retailers may be provided through the website of the Department of Revenue or by other electronic means.

(2) For ordinances containing a termination date and passed after October 1, 1986, the termination date shall be the first day of a calendar quarter. The incorporated municipality shall furnish a certified statement to the Tax Commissioner no more than one hundred eighty days and at least one hundred twenty days prior to the termination date that the termination date stated in the ordinance is still valid. If the certified statement is not furnished within the prescribed time, the tax shall remain in effect, and the Tax Commissioner shall continue to collect the tax until the first day of the calendar quarter which is at least one hundred twenty days after receipt of the certified statement notwithstanding the termination date stated in the ordinance. The Tax Commissioner shall provide at least sixty days' notice of the termination of the tax to retailers. Notice shall be provided to retailers within the municipality. Notice to retailers may be provided through the website of the department or by other electronic means.

(3) For sales and use tax purposes only, local jurisdiction boundary changes apply only on the first day of a calendar quarter after a minimum of one hundred twenty days' notice to the Tax Commissioner and sixty days' notice to sellers.

(4) The state shall provide and maintain a database that describes boundary changes for all local taxing jurisdictions. This database shall include a description of any change and the effective date of the change for sales and use tax purposes.

(5) The state shall provide and maintain a database of all sales and use tax rates for all of the local jurisdictions levying taxes within the state. For the identification of counties, cities, and villages, codes corresponding to the rates shall be provided according to Federal Information Processing Standards as developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

(6) The state shall provide and maintain a database that assigns each five-digit and nine-digit zip code within the state to the proper tax rates and jurisdictions. For purposes of the streamlined sales and use tax agreement, the database shall apply the lowest combined tax rate imposed in the zip code area if the area includes more than one tax rate in any level of taxing jurisdictions. If a nine-digit zip code designation is not available for a street address or if a seller is unable to determine the nine-digit zip code designation applicable to a purchase after exercising due diligence to determine the designation, the seller or certified service provider may apply the rate for the five-digit zip code area. For purposes of this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that a seller or certified service provider has exercised due diligence if the seller has attempted to determine the nine-digit zip code designation by utilizing software approved by the governing board that makes this designation from the street address and the five-digit zip code applicable to a purchase.

(7) For purposes of the streamlined sales and use tax agreement, the state may provide address-based boundary database records for assigning taxing jurisdictions and their associated rates which shall be in addition to the requirements of subsection (6) of this section. The database records shall be in the same approved format as the database records pursuant to subsection (6) of this section and shall meet the requirements developed pursuant to the federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. 119(a), as such act existed on January 1, 2003. The governing board may allow a member state to require sellers that register under the agreement to use an address-based boundary database provided by that member state. If any member state develops an address-based boundary database pursuant to the agreement, a seller or certified service provider may use those database records in place of the five-digit and nine-digit zip code database records provided for in subsection (6) of this section. If a seller or certified service provider is unable to determine the applicable rate and jurisdiction using an address-based boundary database after exercising due diligence, the seller or certified service provider may apply the nine-digit zip code designation applicable to a purchase. If a nine-digit zip code designation is not available for a street address or if a seller or certified service provider is unable to determine the nine-digit zip code designation applicable to a purchase after exercising due diligence to determine the designation, the seller or certified service provider may apply the rate for the five-digit zip code area. For the purposes of this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that a seller or certified service provider has exercised due diligence if the seller or certified service provider has attempted to determine the tax rate and jurisdiction by utilizing software approved by the governing board that makes this assignment from the address and zip code information applicable to the purchase.

(8) The state may certify vendor-provided address-based boundary databases for assigning tax rates and jurisdictions. The databases shall be in the same approved format as the database records pursuant to subsection (7) of this section and shall meet the requirements developed pursuant to the federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. 119(a) as such act existed on January 1, 2003. If a state certifies a vendor-provided address-based boundary database, a seller or certified service provider may use that database in place of the database provided for in subsection (6) or (7) of this section. Vendors providing address-based boundary databases may request certification of their databases from the governing board. Certification by the governing board does not replace the requirement that the databases be certified by the states individually.

(9) Pursuant to the streamlined sales and use tax agreement, the state shall relieve retailers and certified service providers using databases pursuant to subsection (6) or (7) of this section from liability to the state and local jurisdictions for having charged and collected the incorrect amount of sales or use tax resulting from the retailer or certified service provider relying on erroneous data provided by a member state on tax rates, boundaries, or taxing jurisdiction assignments. After providing adequate notice determined by the governing board, a member state that provides an address-based boundary database for assigning taxing jurisdictions pursuant to subsection (7) or (8) of this section may cease providing liability relief for errors resulting from the reliance on the database provided by the member state under the provisions of subsection (6) of this section. If a seller demonstrates that requiring the use of the address-based boundary database would create an undue hardship, the state and the governing board may extend the relief of liability to such seller for a designated period of time.

(10) The databases provided for in this section shall be in a downloadable format approved by the governing board pursuant to the streamlined sales and use tax agreement. The databases may be directly provided by the state or provided by a vendor as designated by the state. A database provided by a vendor as designated by a state shall be applicable to and subject to all provisions of this section. The databases shall be provided at no cost to the user of the database. The provisions of subsections (6) and (7) of this section do not apply when the purchased product is received by the purchaser at the business location of the seller.

(11) A seller that did not have a requirement to register in this state prior to registering pursuant to the agreement or a certified service provider shall not be required to collect sales or use taxes for a state until the first day of the calendar quarter commencing more than sixty days after the state has provided the databases required by this section.

Source:Laws 1969, c. 629, § 2, p. 2530; Laws 1969, c. 683, § 8, p. 2644; Laws 1986, LB 890, § 4; Laws 2003, LB 282, § 81; Laws 2003, LB 381, § 4; Laws 2005, LB 274, § 277; Laws 2006, LB 887, § 5; Laws 2011, LB211, § 7.

Annotations