CoverageRhode Island

FilledE-911 surcharge and first response surcharge · Rhode Island Division of Taxation

Rhode Island 911 surcharge remittance

We fill Form E911. You review it, sign it, and send it to Rhode Island Division of Taxation.

The state publishes a fillable PDF and this product fills it. What follows is the state’s own form, with the computed figures placed in its own fields.

Rhode Island publishes Form E911 as an Adobe LiveCycle document, and it still carries thirty-seven usable form fields alongside the LiveCycle layer. A fill, save and reopen of the state’s own blank was rendered and read: values land in the correct boxes and the static return — labels, barcode, scanline and declaration block — comes through intact. Saving strips the LiveCycle layer, which is acceptable here only because that layer carries no content the printed return needs, and whether the Division accepts an output produced that way is an open question with the agency.

The rate in force now

Rate: $0.50 per line per month · E-911 surcharge — wireless; $0.75 per line per month · First response surcharge — wireless; $0.50 per line per month · E-911 surcharge — wireline; $0.50 per line per month · First response surcharge — wireline; $0.26 per line per month · Telecommunications education access fund surcharge
Effective: not published by the state · evidenced from 2021-04-01
Cite: R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14(a)(1)–(2); R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-1-61(d)(1)–(2)
Form rev.: Rev. 04/2021
Source: Rhode Island General Assembly, § 39-21.1-14 and § 39-1-61 read verbatim, corroborated by the figures Form E911 (Rev. 04/2021) prints on its own lines 2, 4, 6 and 8
Retrieved: Thu, September 3, 2026 · two independent fetches agree

Cadence

Monthly · set by statute

“Due by the last day of the following month”

Form E911 (Rev. 04/2021), printed on the face of the return

Monthly, unanimously across all three research passes. The return itself asks for “the period ending”, one month at a time.

Due dates

Form E911 and payment

To: Rhode Island Division of Taxation, Excise Tax Section
Rule: the last day of the month after the period ends
Weekends: the date shown is not moved for a weekend or holiday
Applies to: Monthly

“Due by the last day of the following month”

Form E911 (Rev. 04/2021)

The statute words the same obligation differently, and the difference is recorded as a conflict on this record rather than harmonized. The calendar schedules to the form’s own date and shows the statute beside it.

Rhode Island publishes no weekend or holiday rule for this deadline, so the engine does not move the date and says so.

Interest runs on a late remittance under § 39-21.1-14(d) at the rate set by § 44-1-7. A due date renders here as a date; the product does not turn that into a warning.

Authority conflict

3 disagreements between the state's own documents.

This is never settled in code. Both positions are reproduced as the state wrote them, the engine’s posture is stated plainly, and the period is flagged for review so a person decides before it closes.

What a wireline customer’s monthly charge is made of

Flagged for review

The Division of Taxation publishes a single figure of $1.26 a month for a wireline customer. The statutes decompose that into a dollar of 911 money under § 39-21.1-14 and twenty-six cents for the telecommunications education access fund under § 39-1-61, a different fund with its own base and its own exemptions. The Division’s page is not wrong arithmetic; it just does not say that a quarter of the charge is not 911 money.

Rhode Island Division of Taxation, Telecom / E-911 Fee page (footer dated December 23, 2022)

“For wireline customers the rate is dollar and twenty-six cents ($1.26) a month”

https://tax.ri.gov/tax-sections/sales-excise/telecom-e-911-fee

R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14(a)(1) and § 39-1-61(d)(2)

“each residence and business telephone line or trunk … shall be charged a monthly surcharge of fifty cents ($.50) … and a first response surcharge of fifty cents ($.50) … The surcharge is hereby determined to be twenty-six cents ($.26) per access line or trunk.”

https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE39/39-21.1/39-21.1-14.HTM

What the engine does: The engine prices the 911 charge at a dollar for a wireline line and shows both texts. The education-fund lines are priced only on counts the provider enters and confirms, never derived from the 911 count.

What you can do: Ask the Excise Tax Section, in writing, whether the education-fund charge reaches an interconnected-VoIP provider’s lines, and record the answer against this state.

Which statutes the E-911 billing regulation says a provider bills under

Flagged for review

The E-911 implementing regulation still recites a statute that was repealed in 2019 alongside the live one. The regulation’s own stated authority does not include the repealed section, and the repealed section was a wireless-class charge in any case, so the stale citation does not govern the rate — but it is the state’s own text and it is reproduced rather than corrected.

Reg. 270-RICR-20-00-1, billing obligation

“surcharges levied under R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-1-62 and 39-21.1-14”

https://rules.sos.ri.gov/regulations/part/270-20-00-1

R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-1-62

“[Repealed.] … Repealed by P.L. 2019, ch. 88, art. 2, § 7, effective October 1, 2019”

https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE39/39-1/39-1-62.HTM

What the engine does: The engine prices from the live statutes and displays the regulation’s text as written. It does not correct a state’s own citation.

What you can do: No action is needed to file. Mention it to the Excise Tax Section if the regulation is ever cited back at the provider.

When Form E911 and the money are due

Flagged for review

The form prints one deadline and the statute words another, and all three research passes found both and none of them found the two reconciled by the state.

Form E911 (Rev. 04/2021)

“Due by the last day of the following month”

https://tax.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur541/files/forms/2021/Misc/E911_w.pdf

R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14(d)

“within sixty (60) days after [the provider’s] inception of [service] … in this state and every month thereafter, to the division of taxation”

https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE39/39-21.1/39-21.1-14.HTM

What the engine does: The calendar schedules to the form’s own date, which is the earlier reading, and shows the statute beside it. The engine does not choose between them.

What you can do: Confirm the operative deadline with the Excise Tax Section and record the answer against this state.

Counting rule

Two counts, and they must not be collapsed into one. Wireline service is counted per residence or business telephone line, trunk or path, including private branch exchange trunks and centrex equivalent trunks, and each user interface number, extension number or similarly identifiable line, trunk or path to or from a digital network that can reach the state’s E-911 system. Wireless service is counted per instrument, device or means. Trunks and lines provided to wireless communication companies are expressly excluded from the wireline base, which keeps a carrier-to-carrier arrangement from being counted twice. For centrex, eight station lines equal one trunk.

R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14 names VoIP twice, in different places and at different rates. Wireline-style VoIP is named in the wireline clause — “voice over internet protocol (VoIP) wireline” — and carries the wireline amount. Non-fixed, wireless-style VoIP is grouped with wireless instruments by Form E911’s own line 1 instruction, which reads “including prepaid and VoIP”, and carries the wireless amount. A provider with both fixed and nomadic service in Rhode Island therefore files two counts at two rates on one return, and a single Rhode Island line count would be wrong by construction.

Per-customer cap
None. No cap per customer or per location was found by any of the three research passes, on either charge.

“each residence and business telephone line or trunk, or path and data, telephony, internet, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) wireline, line, trunk, or path in the state including PBX trunks and centrex equivalent trunks”

R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14(a)(1)

“Enter the total number of telecommunications instruments, devices, or means, including prepaid and VoIP, that can access, connect, or interface with the Rhode Island E911 Uniform Emergency Telephone System for the month”

Form E911 (Rev. 04/2021), line 1

“The surcharge is hereby determined to be twenty-six cents ($.26) per access line or trunk.”

R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-1-61(d)(2), the education-fund charge on lines 5 and 6

Collection allowance

Rhode Island grants the provider no collection allowance and no retained percentage on either charge on this return. Two research passes read both statutes and both implementing regulations in full and found none; the whole amount collected is remitted.

R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14; Reg. 270-RICR-20-00-1; R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-1-61; Reg. 815-RICR-10-00-3

Rate history

1 window on record

The engine resolves the window that covers the filing period, never the latest one. A back period therefore prices at the rate that was in force for it.

2021-04-01 (evidenced) → current
$0.50 per line per month · E-911 surcharge — wireless; $0.75 per line per month · First response surcharge — wireless; $0.50 per line per month · E-911 surcharge — wireline; $0.50 per line per month · First response surcharge — wireline; $0.26 per line per month · Telecommunications education access fund surcharge
R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14(a)(1)–(2); R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-1-61(d)(1)–(2)
https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE39/39-21.1/39-21.1-14.HTM · retrieved Thu, September 3, 2026
Rhode Island publishes no effective date for these figures. They are confirmed in force now and confirmed in force by April 2021, because the current revision of the form prints them, and the amendment history of § 39-21.1-14 runs from 1986 to 2023 without any pass isolating which act last moved them. This window is therefore bounded at the form revision that evidences the amounts, and a period before it is refused rather than priced at a figure nobody has dated.
The consequence is worth stating plainly: Rhode Island back periods before April 2021 cannot be priced until that session-law comparison is done. It is an open operator-queue item.
The education-fund figure was in force at its most recent amendment, P.L. 2020, ch. 79, art. 1, § 2, per the statute’s own history note.
A matching dollar figure is not a matching charge. A repealed wireless-class fund surcharge carried the same twenty-six cents with the same thirty-five-cent ceiling until October 1, 2019, and both earlier research passes attached the form’s line 5 to the wrong statute because of it. A drift check should key on the charged-base language and the section, never on an amount.
Flagged for review: What a wireline customer’s monthly charge is made of; Which statutes the E-911 billing regulation says a provider bills under

Zero-report rule

not published

Zero report · not on record

Rhode Island states neither that a month with no liability must be reported nor that it may be skipped. What Form E911 does carry is the ordinary perjury declaration over whatever the provider files — “Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this return and accompanying schedules and statements, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, it is true, accurate and complete.” That is the provider’s own declaration; there is no state-drafted zero-liability statement of the Minnesota kind, and none may be composed.

Searched: R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14 and § 39-1-61, regulations 270-RICR-20-00-1 and 815-RICR-10-00-3, and the face of Form E911. All three research passes reached the same absence.

Record retention

not published

Record retention · not on record

Rhode Island publishes no record-retention period specific to these surcharge records. The product’s archive keeps the filings indefinitely, but the state itself states no period.

Searched: R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14 and § 39-1-61, regulations 270-RICR-20-00-1 and 815-RICR-10-00-3, and the Division of Taxation’s own pages for this return. All three research passes reached the same absence.

Registration

Liability attaches to Rhode Island sales tax permit holders that sell wireline or wireless telecommunications service, so registration rides the state’s ordinary business registration rather than a 911-specific enrollment. No E-911-specific registration step was found by any research pass.

https://tax.ri.gov/online-services/register-your-business-online

The Division’s own guidance describes who owes the charge rather than how to open an account for it. Confirm with the Excise Tax Section that the account is set up for this return before the first filing.

The state’s own form

Form: Form E911
Title: E911 Wireless/Wireline Surcharge Return
Revision: Rev. 04/2021
Published at: https://tax.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur541/files/forms/2021/Misc/E911_w.pdf

The return is completed, signed by an authorized officer and mailed with payment. The mailing address, the payee and the accepted payment methods are not printed on the form and were not found published, so this product does not state them; confirm them with the Excise Tax Section before the first filing.

Remit to

State, single agency

Agency: Rhode Island Division of Taxation
Division: Sales & Excise — Excise Tax Section
Contact: Tax.Excise@tax.ri.gov · 401-574-8955 · One Capitol Hill, Providence, RI 02908

Out of scope

What this page does not cover.

The annual list of uncollected amounts under § 39-21.1-14(f)
Each provider must give the E-911 division a yearly list of amounts it did not collect, with the names and addresses of the subscribers who did not pay. This product holds no subscriber-level data by design, so that obligation is named here and handled by the provider outside this product — never as a field, an import target or a stored record.
Prepaid wireless telecommunications service
The statute carves it out expressly and sends it to chapter 21.2, where it is collected at the retail point of sale by the seller. A different remitter and a different filing.
The paid-preparer block on Form E911
This product is not the preparer of the return. Those fields are never populated, and the provider completes them if a paid preparer is involved.

Everything else this record does not know

Rate history · not on record

Whether the education-fund charge on lines 5 through 8 reaches an interconnected-VoIP provider’s lines is open. Neither § 39-1-61 nor its implementing regulation names VoIP, interconnected VoIP or any internet-protocol service anywhere; the nearest text reaches “a path to or from a digital network”, which settles it neither way, and the education department’s own program page describes the charge as being on a land phone line. Two independent reads confirmed the same absence. Until the Division answers, these lines are entered by the provider and this gap shows beside them.

Searched: R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-1-61 in full, Reg. 815-RICR-10-00-3 in full, the education department’s program page, and Form E911. A third research pass and the adjudicator each searched the section for VoIP and found no occurrence.

Effective date · not on record

The date the current 911 figures took effect is not established. They are confirmed in force now and confirmed in force by April 2021 from the form that prints them, but the amendment history of § 39-21.1-14 runs from 1986 to 2023 and no pass isolated the act that last set them. Rhode Island back periods before April 2021 cannot be priced.

Searched: R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14 including its history note, by three research passes and the adjudicator. The session-law comparison itself was not performed.

Remit-to address · not on record

The mailing address for the return, the payee for the check and the accepted payment methods are not printed on Form E911 and were not found published. The education fund’s own restricted-receipt account has a published address, and it is not established to be where a combined Form E911 payment goes, so it is not presented as one.

Searched: Form E911 in full, the Division of Taxation’s sales and excise pages, and Reg. 815-RICR-10-00-3. All three research passes reached the same absence.

Portal address · not on record

Rhode Island runs no portal dedicated to this return, and whether Form E911 falls under the state’s electronic filing mandate is unresolved — the mandate page does not name it.

Searched: The Division of Taxation’s online services and electronic filing mandate pages. Two research passes reached the same absence.

Sources

Every fact above traces to one of these, retrieved Thu, September 3, 2026.

The record was reached by independent research passes whose disagreement a third pass and an adjudication settled. Each source below opens at the address it was read from, with the date it was read.

Rhode Island General Assembly — R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-21.1-14

The wireline and wireless amounts and their split into an E-911 and a first response component, the naming of VoIP wireline, the exclusion of trunks provided to wireless companies, the prepaid carve-out, and the statutory deadline wording.