Ezel / Tax Rulings / TX
TX 8903L0925B14 Sales and/or Use Tax (State,Local,MTA) 1989-03-24

Were subscription background-music services transmitted by radio frequency taxable telecommunications services?

Short answer: No. The Comptroller found no legislative support for treating subscription music like telephone, telegraph, paging, or similar communications.

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This page answers the general question as of 1989. Ezel answers yours, under current Texas tax law, with citations.

Currency note: this ruling is from 1989
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 an official Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts letter published on the State Tax Automated Research (STAR) system. Letters on STAR can be the basis of a detrimental reliance claim only for the taxpayer to whom the letter was directly issued (see 34 Tex. Admin. Code Rules 3.1 and 3.10); documents on STAR may no longer represent current policy even if not marked superseded. Taxpayer-identifying details are redacted. This summary is informational only and is not legal or tax advice. Consult a licensed Texas tax professional about your specific situation.
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 Comptroller concluded that the described subscription background-music service and similar services were not taxable telecommunications services.

The letter found no support for taxation in the legislative history and said the telecommunications definition instead targeted telephone, telegraph, paging, and similar communications services.

The preserved body prints the date as “March 24, 198”; the complete 1989 date comes from the official STAR metadata for this accession.

Common questions

Was the subscription music service taxable as telecommunications? No.

What date does the page use? March 24, 1989, based on STAR metadata because the body truncates the year.

Source

Original ruling text

BOB BULLOCK
Comptroller of Public Accounts
Austin, Texas 78774

March 24, 198

Dear ***:

As a result of our recent discussion and your meeting with my staff, I
have concluded that ** and similar subscription music services are not
taxable as telecommunications services.

I can find no support for taxing this service in the legislative history.
Instead, all indications are that this definition was intended to include
telephone, telegraph, paging, and similar communications type services.

I would appreciate your help in getting the word out to the subscription
music industry on this point. If I can be of further assistance, please
contact me.

Sincerely,
BOB BULLOCK
Comptroller of Public Accounts

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