The 499Q, due August 1, 2013, reports historical revenues for 2Q13 and projected revenues for 4Q13. USAC uses the projected revenues to calculate your 4Q13 Federal USF assessment.
Some carriers give short shrift to their revenue projections. But if your company is growing or contracting significantly from quarter to quarter, filing inaccurate revenue projections can cost you when your federal USF assessment is trued up next year based on your actual 2013 revenues. That is because the USAC formula for calculating the true-up assessment or credit includes a built-in penalty for inaccurate projections.
If you over-project revenues on your 499Qs for the year, your true-up credit will be calculated based on the average of the two lowest quarterly FUSF assessment rates. Conversely, if you under-project revenues, the additional true-up assessment will be based on the average of the two highest quarterly FUSF rates. In either case, assuming there has been some variability in the quarterly FUSF rates, you will wind up paying more in FUSF fees than if you had made accurate projections on the Qs.
