Ezel / Tax Rulings / TX
TX 9009L1044G13 Sales and/or Use Tax (State,Local,MTA) 1990-09-10

Was natural gas used in a nursing home's separately metered laundry facility residential or taxable commercial use?

Short answer: It was residential use when the nursing home operated the laundry for its own linens and residents' clothing, but commercial if it served or was run by a third party.

Apply this to your situation

This page answers the general question as of 1990. Ezel answers yours, under current Texas tax law, with citations.

Currency note: this ruling is from 1990
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 Code Rules 3.1 and 3.10); documents on STAR may no longer represent current policy even if not marked superseded.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

A nursing home's laundry had a separate natural-gas meter from its living facilities. The nursing home owned and operated the laundry to clean its own linens.

The Comptroller treated that use as residential. The same treatment applied when the laundry cleaned clothing owned by nursing-home residents.

The use became commercial if the facility provided laundry service for third parties other than the nursing home or its residents, or if a third party operated the laundry.

What this means for you

The separate meter did not itself make the laundry commercial. Ownership, operation, and whose property was laundered controlled the classification stated here.

Common questions

Was gas used to wash the nursing home's linens residential use? Yes.

What about residents' clothing? That was also residential use.

When did the laundry become commercial? When it served other third parties or was operated by a third party.

Citations and references

  • No numbered statute or rule was cited in the letter.

Source

Original ruling text

COMPTROLLER OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
STATE OF TEXAS
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78774

BOB BULLOCK
Comptroller September 10, 1990

Dear **:

Thank you for your letter regarding sales tax exemption applicable
to natural gas used in nursing home laundry facilities.

You stated that the laundry facility is serviced by a separate
meter from the one that services the living facilities. The laun-
dry facilities are used by the nursing home to launder linens and
other items owned by the nursing home.

A laundry facility located at the nursing home that is owned and
operated by the nursing home to launder its own linens is consider-
ed residential use. This is also true if the laundry facility also
launders clothing owned by the nursing home residents. However,
the laundry facility is considered to be commercial if it provides
laundry services for third-parties (other than the nursing home or
nursing home residents) or it is operated by a third party.

This opinion is based on the facts presented. If there are addi-
tional or different facts, the opinion may change.

If you have any questions or need additional information, you may
call toll free 1-800-252-5555 or the regular number 512/463-4600.
My extension is 3-4666. You may write to Tax Correspondence, Comp-
troller of Public Accounts.

Sincerely,
Jo Ann Dieck
Tax Correspondence

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