Ezel / Tax Rulings / TX
TX 8801L1029C04 Sales and/or Use Tax (State,Local,MTA) 1988-01-07

Did Texas exclude capital improvements from the new sales-tax treatment of real-property remodeling?

Short answer: No. The Tax Policy Committee concluded that remodeling included capital improvements, and the Chief Deputy Comptroller approved that decision.

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 approved by the Chief Deputy Comptroller. It does not contain the usual taxpayer-specific facts, fact-change caveat, legal citation, or letter-ruling reliance language. It also mentions a separate exclusion for acts of God and fires without defining it. Capital-improvement, remodeling, casualty, repair, and real-property rules may have changed; verify current law. STAR documents may no longer represent current policy even when not marked superseded. The commenter 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 commenter asked the Tax Policy Committee to exclude capital improvements from the new tax law on remodeling.

The committee concluded that remodeling included capital improvements, and the Chief Deputy Comptroller approved the decision.

The response said the agency had tried to give property owners some relief through an exclusion for acts of God, fires, and similar events, but believed a broader capital-improvement exclusion exceeded the statute's authorization.

What this means for you

This is historical policy-development correspondence, not a fact-specific classification of a particular construction project.

Common questions

Were capital improvements excluded from remodeling? No.

Who approved the committee's decision? The Chief Deputy Comptroller.

Citations and references

The response cites no numbered statute or rule.

Source

Original ruling text

BOB BULLOCK
Comptroller of Public Accounts
Austin, Texas 78774

January 7, 1988

Dear ****:

I apologize for not responding to your letter of December 22, 1987
sooner. As you know, this was Christmas holidays, and I was on
holiday between Christmas and New Year.

However, after the holidays ended the tax policy committee discuss-
ed your proposal that capital improvements be excluded from the new
tax law on remodeling.

The tax policy committee was of the opinion remodeling should in-
clude capital improvements.

As you know, we have been trying to give some relief to property
owners through our exclusion for acts of God, fires, etc. But this
is, in our opinion, more than we feel is authorized under the act.

This decision was subsequently approved by the chief deputy
comptrol-
ler.

While we realize our answer is not what you would prefer, we do
appre-
ciate your commenting on our rules so we could consider the issue.

Sincerely,
Wade Anderson
Executive Counsel

Get today's answer for your situation

You just read a 1988 ruling on this question. Ezel checks current Texas tax law and answers your specific situation, with citations.

Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer cites the authority it relies on.