(a) Market-Related definitions. As used in this subpart:

Annual receipts means, for the consumer debt collection market, receipts calculated as follows:

(i) Receipts means “total income” (or in the case of a sole proprietorship, “gross income”) plus “cost of goods sold” as these terms are defined and reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return forms (such as Form 1120 for corporations; Form 1120S and Schedule K for S corporations; Form 1120, Form 1065 or Form 1040 for LLCs; Form 1065 and Schedule K for partnerships; and Form 1040, Schedule C for sole proprietorships). Receipts do not include net capital gains or losses; taxes collected for and remitted to a taxing authority if included in gross or total income, such as sales or other taxes collected from customers but excluding taxes levied on the entity or its employees; or amounts collected for another (but fees earned in connection with such collections are receipts). Items such as subcontractor costs, reimbursements for purchases a contractor makes at a customer's request, and employee-based costs such as payroll taxes are included in receipts.

(ii) Period of measurement.

(A) Annual receipts of a person that has been in business for three or more completed fiscal years means the total receipts of the person over its three most recently completed fiscal years divided by three.

(B) Annual receipts of a person that has been in business for less than three completed fiscal years means the total receipts of the person for the period the person has been in business divided by the number of weeks in business, multiplied by 52.

(C) Where a person has been in business for three or more completed fiscal years, but one of the years within its period of measurement is a short tax year, annual receipts means the total receipts for the short year and the two full fiscal or calendar years divided by the total number of weeks in the short year and the two full fiscal or calendar years, multiplied by 52.

(iii) Annual receipts of affiliated companies.

(A) The annual receipts of a person are calculated by adding the annual receipts of the person with the annual receipts of each of its affiliated companies.

(B) If a person has acquired an affiliated company or been acquired by an affiliated company during the applicable period of measurement, the annual receipts of the person and the affiliated company are aggregated for the entire period of measurement (not just the period after the affiliation arose).

(C) Receipts are calculated separately for the person and each of its affiliated companies in accordance with paragraph (ii) of this definition even though this may result in using a different period of measurement to calculate an affiliated company's annual receipts. Thus, for example, if an affiliated company has been in business for a period of less than three years, the affiliated company's receipts are to be annualized in accordance with paragraph (ii) of this definition even if the person has been in business for three or more completed fiscal years.

(D) The annual receipts of a formerly affiliated company are not included in the annual receipts of a nonbank covered person for purposes of this section if the affiliation ceased before the applicable period of measurement as set forth in paragraph (ii) of this definition. The annual receipts of a nonbank covered person and its formerly affiliated company are aggregated for the entire period of measurement if the affiliation ceased during the applicable period of measurement as set forth in paragraph (ii) of this definition.

(E) Annual receipts do not include receipts that result from the collection of debt that was originally owed to a medical provider.

Consumer debt collection is a debt collector's collection of debt incurred by a consumer primarily for personal, family, or household purposes and related to a consumer financial product or service.

Creditor means any person who offers or extends credit creating a debt or to whom a debt is owed, but such term does not include any person to the extent that the person receives an assignment or transfer of a debt in default solely for the purpose of facilitating the collection of debt for another.

Debt collector means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due to another. Notwithstanding the exclusion provided by paragraph (iii) of this definition, the term includes any creditor who, in the process of collecting his own debts, uses any name other than his own which would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such debts. The term does not include:

(i) Any person while acting as a debt collector for another person, both of whom are related by common ownership or affiliated by corporate control, if the person acting as a debt collector does so only for persons to whom it is so related or affiliated and if the principal business of such person is not the collection of debts;

(ii) Any nonprofit organization which, at the request of consumers, performs bona fide consumer credit counseling and assists consumers in the liquidation of their debts by receiving payments from such consumers and distributing such amounts to creditors;

(iii) Any person collecting or attempting to collect any debt owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another to the extent such activity:

(A) Concerns a debt which was originated by such person; or

(B) Concerns a debt which was not in default at the time it was obtained by such person; and

(iv) Any person engaged solely in enforcing a security interest.

(b) Test to define larger participants. A nonbank covered person is a larger participant of the consumer debt collection market if the nonbank covered person's annual receipts resulting from consumer debt collection are more than $10 million.

[77 FR 65798, Oct. 31, 2012, as amended at 77 FR 72913, Dec. 7, 2012; 80 FR 37526, June 30, 2015]