Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday asked a New York state court to dismiss a lawsuit filed in April that alleged the wireless company had failed to collect $100 million in New York state sales taxes.

Sprint issued no statement with the motion, but repeated its April response that New York’s complaint was without merit. The state had no immediate response Thursday.

“We have collected and paid over to New York every penny of sales taxes on mobile wireless services that we believe our customers owe,” Sprint said.

The carrier has said it was protecting its customers against paying more taxes than they are legally required.

New York law has required since 2002 that wireless carriers collect and pay sales taxes on the full amount they charge for monthly access calling fees. The attorney general’s lawsuit alleges that since 2005 Sprint shorted the state by about 25 percent on those sales taxes.

But Sprint in its filing Thursday said it quit collecting sales tax on its charges for interstate calls — those between a New York customer and a number in another state. The Sprint filing cites a part of the New York law that says the sales tax applies to sales “except interstate and international telephony.” The filing also asserts the state’s “terms ‘full amount’ and ‘entire amount’ … are nowhere found in any pertinent provision” of the tax law.

The Star