Ezel / Tax Rulings / TX
TX 8801L1026G11 Sales and/or Use Tax (State,Local,MTA) 1988-01-14

Did Texas treat repainting and reroofing as nontaxable real-property maintenance, and could repairers accept exemption certificates?

Short answer: Repainting and reroofing remained taxable unless performed on a schedule under the proposed maintenance rule. Repairers and remodelers could accept exemption certificates when they had no reason to question them and would then be protected.

Apply this to your situation

This page answers the general question as of 1988. Ezel answers yours, under current Texas tax law, with citations.

Currency note: this ruling is from 1988
Subsequent statutory amendments, regulation changes, court decisions, or later rulings may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current tax advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, rate, or position mentioned here.
Disclaimer: This is a January 1988 Texas Comptroller Executive Counsel response reporting a Tax Policy Committee decision on a proposed real-property rule. It does not include the usual fact-change or reliance language of a taxpayer letter ruling. Repainting, reroofing, scheduled-maintenance, repair, remodeling, and exemption-certificate rules may have changed; verify current law and current good-faith certificate standards. STAR documents may no longer represent current policy even when not marked superseded. The requester is redacted. This summary is informational only and is not legal or tax advice.
About this page: The plain-English summary, reader guidance, and Q&A below were written by Ezel based on the official state tax ruling. The original ruling (linked on this page) is the authoritative source for any reliance.

Plain-English summary

The requester asked the Tax Policy Committee to treat repainting and reroofing as maintenance rather than repair under the new real-property rule. The committee declined to change the rule.

Repainting and reroofing therefore remained taxable unless the work was scheduled as described in the proposed rule.

The response also said repairers and remodelers could accept exemption certificates when they had no reason to question a certificate. Once accepted on that basis, the repairer or remodeler would be protected.

What this means for you

The historical guidance distinguished scheduled maintenance from ordinary repainting or reroofing and used a good-faith standard for accepting exemption certificates.

Common questions

Were repainting and reroofing treated as maintenance automatically? No.

When could the work avoid tax under this response? When scheduled as set out in the proposed rule.

Could a repairer accept an exemption certificate? Yes, if there was no reason to question it.

Citations and references

The response refers to a proposed real-property repair and remodeling rule but gives no rule number.

Source

Original ruling text

January 14, 1988

Dear **:

On January 8, 1988 you asked the tax policy committee to reconsider
the new real property repair and remodeling rule as it concerns
repainting and reroofing. It was your position these were more akin
to maintenance on real property than repair.

The tax policy committee discussed this and concluded the rule should
not be changed. Therefore, both repainting and reroofing will be
taxable unless scheduled as set forth in the proposed rule.

Your second question was directed to exemption certificates. It is
our position remodelers and repairmen may take exemption certificates
if they have no reason to otherwise question the certificate. Once
the certificate is taken, the repairmen and remodelers will be protected.

I hope this satisfactorily answers your questions.

Sincerely,

Wade Anderson
Executive Counsel

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