TAX INFORMATION                                713-554-7100
	Founded in 1997 Net Star was formed by Southway Systems, Inc. an award winning technology consulting company, to address the growing needs of businesses who wished to gain access to the Internet and World Wide Web, but who could not identify an appropriate Internet Service Provider (ISP).   Quick Links     special offer     Broad Band Internet & T1 Wireless Internet Spam Filtering Server Colocation

Explanation of Taxes, Fees and Surcharges Many of the services that Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. provides are subject to a variety of taxes, fees and surcharges. In some instances the government requires Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. to impose a tax or fee on its customers and remit that amount to the government. This is often called a “vendee tax.” On other occasions, the government imposes a tax or fee directly on the vendor. These are called “vendor taxes.” The vendor is usually allowed by law to pass through to its customers the amount of the vendee tax in the form of a line item surcharge. In addition, in order to provide service to its customers Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. frequently has to purchase communications related goods and services from underlying vendors and those vendors often pass through to Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. taxes, fees and surcharges they must collect or they incur. This is a “underlying provider pass-through.”   Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. will collect all required vendee taxes, and they will appear as a line item on your bill. Net Star Telecommunications – like most communications companies – will also pass through any vendor taxes it directly incurs. Finally, Net Star Telecommunications will pass through to its customers the amounts it pays to its underlying providers. Vendee taxes are separately listed; vendor taxes and underlying provider pass-through charges are separately calculated and then summed to a single amount. You will see these two items on your bill under the heading “Taxes and Surcharges Recovery.” What types of charges are included under "Taxes and Surcharges Recovery"? Federal Universal Service Fund ("USF") Local Number Portability Surcharge Telecommunication Relay Service Surcharges State and local Regulatory Commission Texas Municipal Franchise or Street Use Fees Emergency 911 Fees and Surcharges Excise Taxes and local taxes Interstate Access Surcharges Why does Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. recover these fees? Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. had been absorbing these charges until internal system modifications were completed to accurately pass them on to its customers. Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. cannot operate viably without recovering these regulatory fees. This is the standard industry practice. What is Texas Internet Access Tax? This is a vendee sales tax, legislated by the Texas State government. The law gives all Internet access services a $25.00 monthly exemption. If your Internet services do not exceed $25.00 monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually, you will not be taxed. If you exceed $25.00 monthly for your Internet services, you will be taxed 8.25% on your monthly reoccurring total over $25.00, regardless of your renewal plan (monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, annually). A customer with multiple services is granted a single $25 per month exemption per Texas Internet Tax Law. In regards to domain hosting, This tax, legislated by the Texas State government, gives all Domain services a 20% monthly exemption. For example, if your Domain services equal $25.00 per month, only 80% of that total will be taxed ($20.00). How do you calculate the amount of the Taxes, Fees and Surcharges that appear on my bill? Vendee taxes like sales and excise taxes are calculated in the manner required by law. This amount is collected from the customer and remitted to the government, minus any administrative fee that is allowed by the law creating the tax. Vendor taxes usually take the form of a tax on the vendor’s gross receipts from services that are subjected to the tax. The sum of the revenues from these services forms the tax base and then a government-set percent is applied. The vendor is then typically allowed to collect a surcharge from users that represents essentially the same percentage amount applied to the user-subscribed service that gave rise to the vendor tax. The government may change the percent amount on a routine basis, such as quarterly and on occasion they do so retroactively. Therefore vendors will on occasion add a small incremental amount that is reasonably designed to adjust for these fluctuations. As a general principle, however, vendors are supposed to make a diligent attempt to recover the vendor taxes they incur on a pro-rata basis. Underlying provider pass-through charges operate in much the same manner as Vendor taxes; indeed many of the amounts that Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. pays to its underlying providers is compensation to underlying providers for Vendor taxes they incur. Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. will make a diligent attempt to recover the amounts it pays to underlying vendors to Net Star Telecommunications, Inc. customers on a pro-rata basis.