Utah Code Ann. § 59-12-102

Section 59-12-102(13)(b)(i) excludes real estate and improvements to real estate from tangible personal property, so an installed water softener treated as an improvement is not taxable as a sale of tangible personal property merely because it was previously leased.

Superior Soft Water Co. v. Utah State Tax Commission · filed 1992-11-30(13)(b)(i)

The Tax Act, however, also defines “tangible personal property” as not including “real estate or any interest therein or improvements thereon....” Utah Code Ann. § 59-12-102(13)(b)(i) (1987). ... The Tax Commission concedes in its brief that the sale of a water softener pursuant to a sales and installation contract is considered a sale of real property, not tangible personal property. In its informal decision of May 5, 1988, the Tax Commission noted that “[w]ater softeners which are sold and installed become part of the realty....” Stated in terms of the Tax Act, the sale of water softeners, sold pursuant to sales and installation contracts, are sales of improvements to real estate, and not sales of tangible personal property subject to sales tax.

For sales-tax purposes, slag severed from land during mining and placed in a pile is tangible personal property subject to taxation.

Rocky Mountain Energy v. Utah State Tax Commission · filed 1993-04-28(13)(a)(iv)

We conclude that for sales tax purposes, when slag has been severed from the land in the mining process and placed in a pile, it is personal property and subject to taxation pursuant to section 59-12-102(13)(a)(iv).

Section 59-12-102(13)(b)(i) treats modular housing units sold before permanent attachment to realty as tangible personal property rather than improvements to real estate.

Valgardson Housing Systems, Inc. v. State Tax Commission · filed 1993-03-12(13)(b)(i)

This precedent supports the reasonableness of the Tax Commission’s decision that tangible personal property can only be characterized as an improvement to real estate once affixed to realty. Therefore, in the instances at issue where the sales transactions contractually preceded attachment, the Tax Commission’s ruling that the transfers of modular housing units were taxable as sales of tangible personal property was reasonable.

Section 59-12-102(4)(a)(iii) defines medicine to include physician-prescribed oxygen, including oxygen produced by an oxygen concentrator.

Miller Welding Supply, Inc. v. Utah State Tax Commission, Auditing Division · filed 1993-09-02(4)(a)(iii)

Section 59-12-102(4)(a)(iii) defines “medicine” as “any oxygen or stoma supplies prescribed by a physician or administered under the direction of a physician or paramedic.” ... The concentrated oxygen purchased in the familiar green bottles and the oxygen provided by the oxygen concentrator are both oxygen prescribed by a physician. ... We believe the legislature intended that patients should be relieved from paying sales tax when purchasing prescribed medicine, whether patients use oxygen provided by oxygen concentrators or oxygen provided in green bottles. ... The Tax Commission’s ruling assessing sales tax on Miller Welding’s sales of oxygen concentrators is erroneous because oxygen concentrators fall under “any oxygen ... prescribed by a physician” Accordingly, we reverse.

Subsection (10) treats an exchange or barter of tangible personal property for consideration as a sale.

Knowledge Data System v. Utah State Tax Commission, Auditing Division · filed 1993-12-21(10)

Section 59-12-102 defines “sale” as “any transfer of title, exchange, or barter, conditional or otherwise, in any manner, of tangible personal property or any other taxable item ... for a consideration.” Utah Code Ann. § 59-12-102(10) (1992). The trade-ins of computer equipment were exchanges of tangible personal property, and were for consideration. The transactions were, accordingly, sales by the University and ICI that can be exempt from sales tax as “isolated or occasional sales,” depending on the nature of their respective business activities.

Section 59-12-102(10)'s definition of “sale” does not by itself establish that a purchase qualifies for the purchased-for-resale exemption; the taxability inquiry also depends on the substantive retail-sale and exemption provisions.

Broadcast International, Inc. v. Utah State Tax Commission · filed 1994-09-30(10)

While Broadcast’s use of the definition of “sale” to construe the term “resale” seems plausible, we must point out that satisfying the definition of “sale” is not the end of the inquiry, even if Broadcast is correct that a “resale” is nothing more than another “sale.”

Section 59-12-102(10) defines a sale to include a transfer of title to tangible personal property for consideration.

Matrix Funding Corp. v. Auditing Division of the Utah State Tax Commission · filed 1994-02-03(10)

Section 59-12-102(10) plainly and unambiguously defines a sale as “any transfer of title.” The Sale Agreement provides: “The parties agree that title to the Equipment shall pass from [Customer] to [Matrix] on the Closing Date.” Thus, according to the plain meaning of the statute and the language of the Sale Agreement, a sale occurred when Customer transferred title to the equipment to Matrix.

Section 59-12-102(19) treats meals furnished for consideration under a patient care contract as sales even when they have no separate itemization or price.

Heritage Convalescent Center v. Utah State Tax Commission · filed 1997-10-24(19)

We find nothing in the statutes or in our case law requiring a separate itemization or a separate price affixed for a transaction to qualify as a “sale.” In the instant case, the Commission does not contend that the inpatients do not actually receive the meals or that meals are provided free of charge. It is apparent that the meals are provided as part of the contract for care entered into between petitioners and their patients. Thus, in furnishing meals to the patients, there is a transfer of tangible personal property for consideration, and a sale has occurred, although the consideration is paid as part of the general billing for care.

Under § 59-12-102(6)(d), “feed” means food for animals and birds, so media mix used to grow cells for diagnostic kits is not feed and does not automatically qualify as a component part.

Gull Laboratories, Inc. v. Utah State Tax Commission, Auditing Division · filed 1997-04-03(6)(d)

We conclude media mix is not “feed” under Utah Code Ann. § 59-12-102(6)(d) (1996).

Installed canned software remains tangible personal property because its electronic signals retain a physical existence after installation.

South Central Utah Telephone Ass'n v. Auditing Division of the Utah State Tax Commission · filed 1997-12-30(23)(a)

Although perhaps difficult to comprehend and perceive at these microscopic levels, the electronic signals of installed software are tangible.

Subsection (31) defines a vehicle by incorporating the section 41-1a-102 definition and requiring that it be titled, registered, or both; parts added after the vehicle is purchased do not become part of that vehicle for the exemption.

Dick Simon Trucking, Inc. v. Utah State Tax Commission · filed 2004-01-30(31)

“Vehicle” means, in pertinent part, “any vehicle, as defined in section 41-la-102 ... that is required to be titled, registered, or both.” Utah Code Ann. § 59-12-102(31) (2000). ... In actuality, we are ruling that a “vehicle” is comprised of all its parts at the time of the purchase transaction. Once the transaction is completed, however, additional parts cannot be exempted from taxation by adding them on to the already-built vehicle.