Missouri Telecom Tax: Rates, Fees, And Rules

Quick Facts

How Missouri Taxes Telecom Services

Missouri taxes the buyer's purchase of telecom service under its general sales tax. RSMo section 144.020.1(4) levies 4% on the basic rate paid or charged on all sales of local and long distance telecom service to subscribers, and the Department of Revenue lists the total state sales and use tax rate as 4.225%, distributed into four state funds. The statute defines telecom service broadly, as the transmission of information by wire, radio, optical cable, coaxial cable, electronic impulses, or other similar means.

The base has firm edges. Amounts paid for access to the internet or interactive computer services do not count as telecom service. The definition also carves out answering services, one-way paging, private mobile radio, and cable or satellite television or music when the bill states them separately. Interstate calls are exempt, and the statute's bundling rule puts the burden on the provider: when a bill mixes taxable and nontaxable services, including interstate or international calls, the provider must separate the nontaxable part using reasonable and verifiable standards from its business records. The Department of Revenue's telecommunications tax matrix applies the same rule and taxes the entire bundled charge when the provider's books cannot break it out.

The local layer has two parts. Cities and counties may impose local sales and use taxes, special taxing districts may add more, and the Department of Revenue publishes the combined rate tables. Separately, RSMo section 94.270 lets cities license and tax telephone companies, so a provider can owe a city license tax on its receipts on top of collecting sales tax from its customers. Those license taxes vary city by city, and this page points to them rather than printing rates.

Pass-through line items get their own answers in the Department of Revenue's matrix. Charges a provider adds to recover the federal universal service fund, the Missouri universal service fund, and municipal gross receipts taxes are taxable. The Missouri E911 surcharge and the Missouri relay assessment are exempt from the sales tax base. A biller that treats every surcharge the same way will get some of these wrong.

911 And Other Per-Line Fees

Missouri funds 911 at the county level. The Missouri 911 Service Board states that Missouri has no statewide 911 funding and gives counties three choices, one at a time. A county can tax landlines at up to 15% of the tariff local service rate or 75 cents per access line per month, whichever is greater, capped at 100 lines per person per location (RSMo section 190.305). With voter approval, it can instead charge up to $1 per month on each device capable of contacting 911, which reaches landline, postpaid wireless, and VoIP subscribers, exempts prepaid customers and broadband internet access, and replaces the landline tax (RSMo section 190.455). Or it can adopt a county sales tax of up to 1% for central dispatching, which ends the landline tax once the new tax is certified as operational (RSMo section 190.335).

Prepaid wireless pays through one statewide mechanism. Since January 1, 2019, sellers collect a prepaid wireless emergency telephone service charge of 3% of each retail transaction in Missouri, with the first $15 of each transaction exempt (RSMo section 190.460). The seller keeps 3% of what it collects, remits the rest to the Department of Revenue through the state's online portal, and the money flows into the Missouri 911 service trust fund for distribution to counties and cities. Counties and cities could opt out by ordinance before the charge took effect.

Two more charges sit on Missouri bills. RSMo section 209.255 directs the Missouri Public Service Commission to set a surcharge on each basic telephone access line, capped at 100 lines per subscriber per location, that funds the deaf relay service and equipment distribution program and must appear as its own line item; the commission last reviewed it in File No. TO-2024-0033 and cut it from $0.10 to $0.06 per line, effective June 1, 2024. RSMo section 392.248 assesses all telecom companies in the state for the Missouri universal service fund, based on Missouri jurisdictional revenue, to support essential local service in high-cost areas and for low-income and disabled customers; the commission reinstated that assessment on January 1, 2023, at 0.15% (.0015) of net jurisdictional revenue, in Case No. TO-2019-0346, and companies under $24,000 in annual net jurisdictional revenue do not owe it.

Taxability By Service Type

• Intrastate calls, local and long distance: taxable under the state and local sales tax (Department of Revenue telecommunications tax matrix).
• Interstate and international calls: exempt; the provider must separate them from taxable charges using its business records (RSMo § 144.020.1(4); Department of Revenue matrix).
• VoIP service: taxable, and so are billing components tied to it (Department of Revenue matrix).
• Text messaging: taxable (Department of Revenue matrix).
• Internet access: exempt under RSMo sections 144.010 and 144.020.1(4) and the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act.
• Cable or satellite television, music, and streaming services: exempt when separately stated (RSMo § 144.010; Department of Revenue matrix).
• Sales for resale: outside the tax, because RSMo section 144.010 limits a sale at retail to transfers for use or consumption and not for resale.
• Prepaid wireless: pays the 3% prepaid 911 charge at retail and is exempt from the county per-device 911 fee (RSMo §§ 190.455, 190.460).

How CereTax Handles Missouri

Missouri's difficulty is that no two counties fund 911 the same way, and the sales tax base turns on service type and separation. Every invoice needs the right combination of state, county, city, and district sales tax rates for the customer's location, the right 911 mechanism for that county, an intrastate-plus-VoIP base that excludes interstate calls and internet access, and correct treatment of each pass-through line item. CereTax assigns each charge to the right county, city, and district at the rooftop level, applies Missouri's base rules by service type, and keeps an audit trail behind every calculation. If you serve customers in Missouri, book a demo and bring a real invoice.

For the full evaluation checklist, see what a telecom tax engine should do.

Sources

• RSMo § 144.020, sales tax imposition, telecom service levy and bundling rule. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 144.010, definitions, sale at retail and telecommunications service. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 190.305, county emergency telephone tax on landlines. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 190.335, county sales tax for central dispatching. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 190.455, county monthly fee on 911-capable devices. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 190.460, prepaid wireless emergency telephone service charge. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 209.255, deaf relay service and equipment fund surcharge. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 392.248, Missouri universal service fund. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• RSMo § 94.270, city license taxes on telephone companies. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• Missouri Department of Revenue, sales and use tax page. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• Missouri Department of Revenue, emergency telecommunications services fees page. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• Missouri Department of Revenue, telecommunications tax matrix, industry guidance effective October 24, 2022. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• Missouri 911 Service Board, county funding options. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• Missouri Public Service Commission, Assessments and Filing Requirements page (Missouri universal service fund assessment and Relay Missouri surcharge, current rates). Accessed August 28, 2026.
• Missouri Public Service Commission, Order Regarding the Deaf Relay Service and Equipment Distribution Fund Surcharge, File No. TO-2024-0033, issued March 21, 2024, surcharge decrease effective June 1, 2024. Accessed August 28, 2026.
• Internet Tax Freedom Act, 47 U.S.C. § 151 note.

See how other states compare on the telecom tax by state hub.

Note: Always confirm current rates and filing obligations directly with the state’s DOR, PUC, or 911 authority before applying charges or remitting payments.