Overview

Skyetel has outsourced our Taxes and Regulatory Compliance obligations to a third party named RTC Associates. RTC is a reputable and privacy-centered organization based in Georgia that helps VoIP Carriers and PBX Service Providers alike keep on top of their Taxes and Regulations Compliance. 

We have decided to outsource our obligations in order to provide more accurate reporting and collection and to streamline our own operations. Keeping up with this stuff was challenging and we decided it was best left with the experts. 

What this means for you:

• We will collect taxes collectively at the end of the month, rather than in real time like we used to. 
• There will be much more detail on your Skyetel statement about what taxes are collected - we will no longer be consolidating all taxes into a single field.
• Skyetel will now require every active account to maintain a credit card on file (we explain why below)
• Your effective tax rate (the amount you pay in taxes) may change slightly. The average change network-wide was 5%.

What this means for our resellers:

• Customers who have state sales tax certificates may now have those taxes removed from their account, while still paying federal taxes.
• Your information will continue to remain confidential, and has not been shared with RTC or other Third Parties.

Credit Card Requirement

In order for Skyetel to calculate what taxes are owed to the appropriate government agencies, our tax system uses your billing ZIP code as a way to identify your locality. This allows us to identify where you are located and what taxes you owe, while still protecting your privacy. 

The only way Skyetel is able to collect payments from our customers is by credit card, and therefore, the billing ZIP code associated with your credit card is the only ZIP code we can use in order to calculate these taxes. Further, since our customers use taxable services throughout the month (things like placing and receiving calls, buying phone numbers, etc), we need to have a reliable way to maintain your current and accurate billing ZIP code for the entire month. (It is also a good way to insure that people don't intentionally provide an inaccurate ZIP code in order to reduce their taxes).

Therefore and unfortunately, we will be requiring our customers to keep an active credit card on their account at all times. Please know that we will not bill this card without your consent (auto billing is disabled by default) - this requirement is only to keep the account's taxable locality current and accurate. 

Your Privacy

Skyetel understands the value you place on your business's privacy, confidential operations, trade secrets and customer lists. Please know that Skyetel does not share any identifying customer information with any third party or government agency as part of our Taxes and Regulatory Compliance Obligations. This information is protected by the Confidentiality clauses in our Terms of Service, and our CPNI Policy. RTC (or any third party or government agency) does not have access to our customer list, or any identifying information. We take your concerns around privacy very seriously and want to assure you that your use of the Skyetel Network remains strictly confidential.

Information We Share

In order to calculate what our Regulatory Compliance obligations are on a state by state basis, Skyetel uses the billing ZIP code associated with your account. This ZIP code (and no other information) is sent to our third party Tax Compliance Consultant (RTC) in order to query their Tax Calculating API. The resulting calculations are saved into Skyetel's billing ledger to bill you correctly and the transaction data is deleted from RTCs engines. This information only exists on your Billing Ledger that you can see from your Statements. 

RTC Associates

Skyetel has chosen RTC Associates to serve as its third-party Tax and Regulatory Compliance consultant. RTC is a extremely reputable consultant that is used by many providers in our industry. 

In addition to RTC being a reputable compliance firm, they also share our strong values around protecting your privacy and offering excellent customer service. For the Skyetel customers that are interested in contacting RTC directly, please know that what you share with them is protected by a very strong Non-Disclosure Agreement and is kept strictly confidential as you seek to get more information. 

You can learn more about RTC from their website here: https://rtc-associates.com/