Is a bulletin that is essentially a listing of manufacturers' refund offers a tax-exempt periodical, or a taxable information service?

Plain-English summary

Rose Marie Thompson (Schenectady, New York) asked whether she must collect sales tax on her publication "Consumer's Bulletin," which consists of a listing of refund offers by various manufacturers, plus reader letters, reader ads, and information from manufacturers' letters.

The answer: taxable — this is an information service, not an exempt periodical.

• § 1105(c)(1) taxes the service of furnishing information — including collecting, compiling, or analyzing information and furnishing reports of it. The Department found the Bulletin is essentially such an information service (a listing of refund offers and related information), so its sale is taxable under § 1105(c)(1).
• The newspaper/periodical exemption (§ 1115(a)(5)) does not save it:
  • Under 20 NYCRR 528.6(c), a periodical excludes listings and compilations that constitute information services. And the refund offers, letters, ads, and brief "filler" items are not "articles" devoted to literature, the sciences, arts, news, or a field of endeavor. The sample also fails to state its publication frequency (no "stated intervals").
  • Under 20 NYCRR 528.6(b), it's not a newspaper either.
• So receipts from selling the Bulletin are taxable as the furnishing of information.

Related opinion — same publication, opposite result: A later Advisory Opinion, TSB-H-80(258)S, examined a revised issue of the same "Consumer's Bulletin" (Issue 8, November 1980) that stated a monthly publication frequency and contained a variety of articles by different authors, and found it did qualify as an exempt periodical. The difference shows how meeting the specific periodical criteria — a stated frequency and genuine varied articles — can flip the result.

What this means for you

A "listing" or "compilation" is usually a taxable information service. New York taxes the business of collecting and furnishing information. A publication that is essentially a list of offers or data — rather than a collection of real articles — tends to be taxed under § 1105(c)(1), not exempted as a periodical.

The periodical exemption has teeth. To qualify, a publication must clear the 528.6(c) test and not be a listing/compilation that's really an information service. Refund offers, ads, reader letters, and filler don't count as the "variety of articles by different authors" the rule requires.

Small fixes can change the answer. As the companion opinion shows, adding a stated publication schedule and substantive authored articles helped a later issue of the same bulletin qualify as an exempt periodical. If you publish something borderline, the details of format and content matter.

Common questions

Q: Why is a bulletin of refund offers taxable?
A: Because it's essentially an information service — a listing/compilation of information — which § 1105(c)(1) taxes. It isn't a periodical, because 20 NYCRR 528.6(c) excludes listings/compilations that are information services and requires real articles.

Q: It comes out regularly — isn't that a periodical?
A: Not on these facts. Besides the "information service" problem, the sample didn't state its publication frequency, so it failed the "stated intervals" requirement, and its contents weren't "articles" of the required kind.

Q: Didn't the same publication get treated as exempt elsewhere?
A: Yes. A later opinion, TSB-H-80(258)S, found a revised issue — with a stated monthly frequency and a variety of authored articles — qualified as an exempt periodical. Each opinion turns on the specific issue examined.

Citations and references

Statutes, regulations and authority:

• Tax Law § 1105(c)(1) — taxes the service of furnishing information, including collecting, compiling, or analyzing information and furnishing reports of it
• Tax Law § 1105(a) — imposes sales tax on receipts from retail sales of tangible personal property (a periodical would be exempt TPP)
• Tax Law § 1115(a)(5) — exempts newspapers and periodicals
• 20 NYCRR 528.6(c) — periodical test; excludes listings and compilations that constitute information services
• 20 NYCRR 528.6(b) — definition of "newspaper" (matters of general interest and reports of current events)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/advisory_opinions/sales_ao_1980.htm
• Opinion: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/advisory_opinions/sales/h80_172s.pdf

Original ruling text

New York State Department of Taxation and Finance

Taxpayer Services Division
Technical Services Bureau

TSB-H-80(172)S
Sales Tax
September 10, 1980

STATE OF NEW YORK
STATE TAX COMMISSION
ADVISORY OPINION

PETITION NO. S800602A

On June 2, 1980, a Petition for Advisory Opinion was received from Rose
Marie Thompson, 12 Helmbold Drive, Schenectady, New York 12303.
The issue raised is whether or not Petitioner is required to collect New
York State sales tax on the receipts from sales of Petitioner's publication,
which is entitled "Consumer's Bulletin".
A sample of Petitioner's publication, and of the contents of a future
issue, were submitted with the petition. Examination reveals Petitioner's
publication to consist of a listing of refund offers made by various product
manufacturers, letters from readers relative to their experiences as consumers,
ads placed by readers and information received in letters from manufacturers.
Petitioner states that the bulletin is published more than four times a year,
that it is available to the public, that it has continuity as to title and nature
of content from issue to issue, that it does not, either singly or when
successive issues are put together, constitute a book and that each issue will
have articles by different authors devoted to some special industry or other
field of endeavor.
Section 1105(c)( 1) of the Tax Law imposes a tax on receipts from the sale
of the service of the "...furnishing of information by printed, mimeographed or
multigraphed matter or by duplicating written or printed matter in any other
manner, including the services of collecting, compiling or analyzing information
of any kind or nature and furnishing reports thereof to other persons....”
Petitioner's publication consists essentially of a listing of manufacturers'
refund offers and related pieces of information. Its sale therefore constitutes
the sale of the service of furnishing information. The receipts from the sale of
such service are subject to the tax imposed under section 1l05(c)(l) of the Tax
Law.
Petitioner urges, in effect, that the publication in question is a
"periodical." If it were in fact a periodical its sale would constitute the sale
of tangible personal property, rather than the sale of the service of the
furnishing of information, and the receipts from such sale would be exempt from
the tax generally imposed on the receipts from the sale of tangible personal
property imposed under section 1l05(a)of the Tax Law. Such exemption is provided
for by section 1115(a)(5) of the Tax Law, which exempts receipts from retail
sales of "newspapers and periodicals." Petitioner's publication, however,
constitutes neither.
Section 528.6(c) of the Sales and Use Tax Regulations defines a periodical,
in relevant part, as follows: " ...(1) In order to constitute a periodical, a
publication must conform generally to the following requirements: (i) it must be
published in printed or written form at stated intervals, at least as frequently
as four times a year; (ii) it must not, either singly or, when successive issues
are put together, constitute a book; (iii) it must be available for circulation
to the public; (iv) it must have continuity as to title and general nature of
content from issue to issue; (v) each issue must contain a variety of articles
by different authors devoted to literature, the sciences or the arts, news, some
special industry, profession, sport or other field of endeavor....(3) Nothing in
this section shall be construed to exempt as a periodical the following:... (ii)
listings and compilations which constitute information services;...." 20 NYCRR
528.6(c).
JAMES H. TULLY, JR., COMMISSIONER
LOUIS M. JACOBSON, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER
FRANK J. PUCCIA, DIRECTOR

2
TSB-H-80(172)S
Sales Tax
September 10, 1980

Section 528.6(b) of the Sales and Use Tax Regulations sets forth four
criteria which a publication must meet in order to constitute a "newspaper ", as
follows:
“...(i) it must be published in printed or written form at stated short
intervals, usually daily or weekly;
(ii) it must not, either singly or, when successive issues are put
together, constitute a book;
(iii) it must be available for circulation to the public; and
(iv) it must contain matters of general interest and reports of current
events." 20 NYCRR 528.6(b).
While Petitioner contends that the publication in question contains
articles by different authors, in the form of refund offers authored by
manufacturers, letters from readers, information received in letters from
manufacturers, and ads placed by readers, such offers, letters, information and
ads like the brief "filler" items contained in the bulletin, do not in fact
constitute "articles" devoted to "literature, the sciences or the arts, news,
some special industry, profession, sport or other field of endeavor. It nor do
they constitute "reports of current events," within the meaning and intent of the
above-quoted provisions of the Sales and Use Tax Regulations. In addition, the
publication also fails to satisfy the requirement, contained in such provisions,
that it be published at "stated" intervals, for nowhere in the submitted sample
does there appear any statement as to its frequency of publication. Inasmuch as
the subject publication fails to satisfy the criteria set forth in 20 NYCRR
528.6(b) and (c), quoted above, it does not constitute either a "newspaper" or
a "periodical".
Accordingly, receipts from the sale of the subject publication are subject
to the tax on the furnishing of information imposed under section 1l05(c) of the
Tax Law.

DATED: August 19,1980

s/ LOUIS ETLINGER
Deputy Director
Technical Services Bureau