State Tax Rulings
Free state tax letter rulings and advisory opinions with plain-English summaries, full citations, and the original source on every page.
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Is a cellular car phone exempt from Texas sales tax if it was purchased under a doctor's prescription?
No — the Texas Tax Code does not provide a sales tax exemption for a cellular car telephone, even when it is purchased under a doctor's prescription. The medical/health-care-supplies exemption in Tax …
Does Utah property, sales/use, or corporate franchise tax apply to copper, gold, silver, platinum, or palladium held in a Utah commodity-exchange depository warehouse before it's resold?
Property tax doesn't apply to copper (or gold, silver, platinum, palladium) once it becomes resale inventory held in the Utah warehouse, because Utah exempts inventory held for sale in the ordinary co…
Was an executed promissory note held for possible funding under a letter of credit subject to Florida documentary stamp tax even if no funds were advanced?
Yes. Florida found the executed note contained an absolute promise to pay a stated sum, so tax was due and had to be affixed when the note was executed even if the contingency never occurred and no fu…
Texas Letter Ruling 9406L1329G11: Textbooks — Sold To Students Or Exempt Org Members Vs. Included In A Lump Sum Charge For A Class
When a textbook is bundled into a single lump-sum charge for a class and not separately billed, the lump-sum charge to the student is not taxable. Instead, the course provider owes sales/use tax on th…
Texas Letter Ruling 9406L1309F10: Meals/Food To Go — Entrees/Dinners Delivered To Customers In Refrigerated Or Frozen State With No Utensils Provided
No sales tax is due. Because the gourmet entrees are delivered refrigerated or frozen for the customer to heat and eat later, and no eating utensils are provided with the sale, the sale falls under th…
Texas Letter Ruling 9406L1306D01: Foundations — Real Property — Cannot Qualify For Manufacturing Exemption
No — the Comptroller ruled that foundations for manufacturing equipment are real property, not machinery or equipment, so they do not qualify for the partial manufacturing sales tax exemption or refun…
If an exempt organization resells amusement park tickets to its members, does it owe sales tax on those ticket sales?
Yes. Under Rule 3.322(g)(1), an exempt organization that resells an amusement park's tickets to others (such as its own members) as the park's agent still owes sales tax on those ticket sales, because…
Is a late fee charged for renewing a maintenance contract late subject to Texas sales tax when it is stated separately on the invoice?
A separately stated late charge for renewing a maintenance contract late is not subject to Texas sales tax, but only if it is truly a penalty and not a forfeiture of an early-payment or prompt-payment…
Do rebate checks a fulfillment company prints and issues on behalf of its clients count as taxable 'promotional materials,' making its charge for issuing them subject to sales tax?
No -- rebate checks are closely related to ordinary bookkeeping items like invoices and statements (which the promotional-materials definition specifically excludes), so the fulfillment company's char…
Were mortgage amendments under a confirmed Chapter 11 plan subject to Florida documentary stamp and nonrecurring intangible taxes?
No additional tax applied to the covered amended indebtedness and exempt renewals, provided tax was paid on the new future advance. Tax on that increase was apportioned by the value of Florida mortgag…
Could a Florida company insider discount SEC Rule 144 restricted stock below market value for annual intangible tax?
Yes. Florida allowed the founder, board chair, and 13% shareholder a 25% discount from current market value because the person's control status and Rule 144 restrictions limited marketability. The dis…
Did Florida's annual intangible tax apply when a parent sold receivables before January 1 to an out-of-state subsidiary and filed a consolidated return?
No, on the described facts. The parent retained only ministerial bookkeeping, the out-of-state subsidiary owned the receivables and bore the risk over January 1, and the intercompany note was eliminat…
When a Utah manufacturing business sells all of its Utah assets to an out-of-state buyer, does Utah sales tax apply to the inventory, the accounts receivable, and the fixed assets?
No sales tax applies to the bulk sale of inventory if the out-of-state buyer gives a properly executed Utah resale exemption certificate. The sale of accounts receivable is exempt because receivables …
Texas Letter Ruling 9406428L: Hot Tub/Spa — Therapeutic Equipment With Doctor'S Prescription — Size Is No Longer Consideration To Determine Exemption
Yes — a hot tub or spa qualifies as an exempt therapeutic appliance under Texas sales tax law if the customer gives the seller a signed statement from a licensed physician or other healing-arts practi…
Are a licensed pharmacist's consultation services to nursing homes — including in-service training of staff — taxable business-management services in Connecticut?
No. A licensed pharmacist's 'pharmacy consultation services' to skilled and intermediate care nursing facilities — monthly review of drug appropriateness, reviewing dosages, assessing drug regimens, m…
Are sales of specialized engineering/environmental illustrations by a freelance illustrator subject to New York sales tax, including when the client is ultimately the New York State Department of Transportation?
Yes -- an illustrator's drawings, sketches, and photographs are tangible personal property, so charges for them are taxable unless the client gives a proper exemption certificate, EXCEPT that no certi…
Is a company's transfer of an entire manufacturing division's assets into new subsidiaries exempt from Connecticut sales and use tax as a casual sale?
Yes (with two carve-outs). When a large manufacturer converts a division into new subsidiaries by contributing all of the division's assets and liabilities — inventory, materials, tools, fuel, machine…
Does the Texas Workers' Compensation Facility's sales tax exemption on insurance services also cover its member insurance companies?
The Texas Workers' Compensation Facility's exemption from sales tax on insurance services (under V.A.T.S., Article 5.76-2, Sec. 2.06) applies only to insurance services the Facility itself buys -- it …
Texas Letter Ruling 9406L1313G06: Copies — Professionals (Lawyers/Architects/Engineers/Accountants) Purchasing Photocopies For Transfer To Clients As Part Of Nontaxable Services — No Resale/Exemption Certificate Allowed
No. A lawyer, architect, engineer, or accountant who buys photocopies, blueprints, or similar items to pass along to a client as part of a nontaxable professional service must pay sales tax on that pu…
Texas Letter Ruling 9406L1307A03: Hazardous Waste/Excluded Waste — Containers/Drums/Roll — Off Boxes — Used To Provide Nontaxable Removal Services — Provider Cannot Issue Resale Certificate
No. A hazardous waste removal company cannot issue a resale certificate for the containers, drums, or roll-off boxes it uses on the job, because hazardous waste removal is a nontaxable service (exclud…
Was an agreement assuming mortgage-related duties taxable when the new property owner did not assume personal repayment liability?
Yes. Florida treated the assumption agreement as a taxable renewal executed by a new obligor because it assumed duties under the mortgage, modification, rent assignment, and UCC filings. Tax applied t…
Could a cruise line avoid or recover Florida's former advance disposal fee on containers used aboard voyages to foreign ports?
Yes. Although the fee initially applied when the cruise line took possession in Florida, the containers were exported from the state on each voyage, supporting a vendor refund or credit. Because expor…
If Kansas environmental rules force my fertilizer or chemical facility to build a containment dike and concrete loading pad, do I get taxed on them?
They must be listed for taxation, but they are only assigned value if the market says they are worth something. The Division directs that appraisers "should list these loading pads and dikes with the …
Texas Letter Ruling 9407673L: Relocation/Relocating Telephone/Gas Lines To Add New Customers Or New Areas — New Contruction
Whether relocating or connecting telephone/gas lines is taxable remodeling or exempt new construction depends on the facts: extending service into an area that never had it before is new construction,…
Were sales of a disposable directional coronary atherectomy system to Florida hospitals exempt from sales tax?
Yes. Florida relied on the product's FDA materials identifying it as a coronary atherectomy catheter and treated it as a specifically exempt catheter under the medical-device rules.
Texas Letter Ruling 9406L1306A08: Stock Market Investors Service — Computer Tracking / Monitoring Of Client'S Investments And Alerting When Prices Change
Yes — the Comptroller ruled that a service using computers to track clients' stock investments and alert them by fax or pre-recorded phone message when prices moved a set percentage is a taxable infor…
Who owed Florida sales or use tax on portable bus-stop shelters supplied and installed for a regional transportation authority?
The contractor did. Florida classified the shelter contract as public works despite the shelters' portability, so a fabricating contractor owed use tax on full manufactured cost or a purchasing contra…
Was the state-required $8 FDLE criminal-history-check fee collected on a firearm sale subject to Florida sales tax?
No, if separately stated and identifiable from the firearm's taxable sales price. Florida treated the $8 charge as a government-imposed FDLE background-check fee rather than a taxable protection servi…
Is a licensed casualty adjuster's insurance investigation and claims-adjusting work a taxable business-management or private-investigation service in Connecticut?
No, on both counts. A company licensed as a 'casualty adjuster' that investigates and adjusts insurance claims for insurers — accident reconstruction, surveillance, interviews, polygraphs, document an…
We leased out our property in 1968 for 21 years with a 21-year renewal option. That option lapsed, and we've since extended the lease twice more -- a 5-year extension in 1989, then a 23-year extension in 1994. The lease includes a right of first refusal (not a purchase option) and lets the tenant make substantial capital improvements, covering essentially the whole property. The new tenant (who took an assignment of the lease) now wants to extend the current term from 23 years to 30 years. Does stacking these lease extensions eventually push the lease term over New York's 49-year threshold and trigger the Real Property Transfer Gains Tax?
Not taxable -- because each lease modification creates a fresh lease for gains-tax purposes, and the newly aggregated term stayed under 49 years. Strausman-Mayfair Associates, L.P. leased New York rea…
Is a stock purchase followed by a corporate merger, where the acquired company's tangible personal property ends up owned by the acquirer, subject to New York State and local sales or use tax?
No -- buying 100% of a company's stock is buying an intangible (stock), not the company's tangible personal property, and the follow-on merger of the acquired company into the acquirer, done solely in…
Is a section 4(c)(7) investment subsidiary, owned by a bank holding company but whose sole business is investing in securities for its own account, a banking corporation subject to Article 32?
No -- it is not a banking corporation, so it is taxed under Article 9-A, not Article 32. BT Investment Partners (BTIP) is indirectly wholly owned by Bankers Trust New York Corporation (a registered ba…
When a golf course is reworked to fill in a creek, install drainage, add a lake spillway and waterfalls, and re-sod disturbed areas, which parts of the job count as tax-favored new construction versus taxable remodeling or landscaping?
The Comptroller split the job feature-by-feature: filling in a natural creek, grading/shaping it into rough, and installing drain pipe and inlets is new construction; sprigging the area with Bermuda g…
Is adding 1,000 square feet of new putting surface to an existing golf green new construction or taxable remodeling for Texas sales tax purposes?
Enlarging an existing putting green by adding new square footage is generally new construction (not taxable as remodeling labor), but the strip where the new surface ties into the old green is remodel…
Texas Letter Ruling 9406L1305D08: Golf Course — Made Up Of A Number/Collection Of Improvements (Lake,Fairways, Cart Paths, Gabion, Tee Box/Signs, Greens, Clubhouse, Trenches) New Construction Vs. Remodeling
It depends on what work is done to which improvement: totally demolishing and rebuilding a green from scratch is new construction, but roto-tilling/reshaping an existing green is remodeling (though so…
Were shares of a business-trust fund exempt from Florida intangible tax when its portfolio held only tax-exempt assets?
Yes. Florida found the fund shares exempt if the trust's entire portfolio consisted solely of exempt Florida municipal obligations, U.S. government or agency securities, territorial obligations, and q…
Were deeds exchanged between former spouses taxable when they were recorded only to facilitate a mortgage refinancing that never occurred?
Yes. Florida treated each recorded deed as taxable on the outstanding mortgage balance even though no other consideration was paid and the refinancing failed. The second deed remained underpaid unless…
Were a renewal note, mortgage modification, and contingent reimbursement note subject to Florida documentary stamp tax?
The renewal note and related mortgage modification were exempt if the original obligor renewed only the unchanged outstanding principal and proper tax had been paid on the original mortgage. The conti…
Did a farmer have to register as a Florida sales-tax dealer to buy crop-harvesting or farm-processing boxes tax-free?
No. Florida exempted portable containers used to harvest crops or process farm products when the farmer signed the required exclusive-use certificate. The farmer did not need sales-tax dealer registra…
Is close captioning work performed as part of producing a film or video subject to Texas sales tax, and can the captioner buy tapes tax-free?
Close captioning is treated as one of the steps in creating a master film or video, not as a separately taxable service. The captioner should get an exemption certificate from the client stating the f…
If a husband and wife run a residential cleaning business together, is their cleaning service exempt from sales tax as household employees, or must they collect tax as a business?
If the husband and wife clean the same homes together and equally share the revenue, they are not treated as employees of the household and their company must collect sales tax on its residential clea…
Can a manufacturer located in a Texas enterprise project claim the phase-in sales tax exemption on manufacturing machinery and equipment in addition to the tax refunds available under the enterprise project program?
Yes. A manufacturer located in an enterprise project may claim the phase-in exemption on qualifying manufacturing machinery and equipment in addition to the tax refunds available under the enterprise …
Are ticket sales to a movie-based motion-simulator ride subject to New York State sales tax as an admission charge?
No -- a movie-based flight-simulator ride is a ride, not a 'place of amusement,' so ticket sales to it are not taxable admission charges under Section 1105(f)(1) of the Tax Law.
Are offshore investors that buy and sell U.S. securities through a New York investment adviser and custodian doing business in New York for Article 9-A, when the discretionary trading decisions are made outside the state?
No, they are not doing business in New York. Under the structure, a foreign subsidiary and a foreign unit trust would invest in U.S. stocks and bonds. The only New York activities are a custodian hold…
Do retailers owe Texas sales tax on the paper, ribbons, boxes, and bags they buy to provide gift-wrapping services to customers?
Yes. Under Rule 3.314, a retailer must pay sales tax on the purchase price of gift-wrapping supplies (paper, ribbons, boxes, tissue, bags, etc.) used to provide gift-wrapping services, and must also c…
Is a service that cuts lines in a customer's semiconductor chip and creates new connections, without adding or removing any material, subject to Texas sales tax?
Yes. The Comptroller ruled that cutting lines in a client's semiconductor chip and forming new connections is taxable as repair or remodeling of tangible personal property under 34 Tex. Admin. Code Ru…
Is admission to an event or tour held at a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places subject to Texas sales tax?
No. Under 34 Tex. Admin. Code § 3.298(g)(1)(E), admission charges for amusement services provided exclusively at a place listed on the National Register of Historic Places are exempt from Texas sales …
Is a fee charged for a loading zone parking permit subject to Texas sales tax?
Yes. The Comptroller ruled that a charge for a loading zone permit -- which allows a passenger-type vehicle to legally park in a freight loading zone -- is subject to Texas sales and use tax as a moto…
Are hand-operated measuring and inspection gages (like micrometers and thread gages) exempt from Texas sales tax as manufacturing equipment?
No. The Comptroller ruled that manually operated inspection instruments -- snap gages, thread gages, plug gages, dial gages, micrometers, and similar tools used to check product dimensions during manu…
Is a fee charged for a computer-generated mortgage cost-savings analysis, used as a sales tool for an equity-acceleration program, subject to Texas sales tax as a data processing service?
Yes, if a charge is made. The Comptroller held that when a homeowner is charged for a consultation and receives a computer printout analyzing potential interest savings (generated by inputting the cus…
Is an international organization recognized under the International Organizations Immunity Act (22 U.S.C. 288) and the NAFTA Implementation Act exempt from Texas sales and use tax?
No. The Comptroller held that the International Organizations Immunity Act grants covered organizations and their officers/employees only specific federal-law privileges -- immunity from suit, exempti…
Did PLR 94-7 exempt grease and oil used to lubricate tax-exempt manufacturing machinery?
No. The ruling treated the lubricants as taxable purchases for ABC's own use, not exempt machine parts or purchases for resale. Later burning the used oil as boiler fuel, recycling it, selling it, or …
Did substituting Florida mortgages as collateral for notes issued under a confirmed Chapter 11 plan trigger documentary stamp or intangible tax?
No. Florida found that the debtor's execution and recording of substitute, replacement, or additional mortgages securing the already exempt plan notes remained exempt under the confirmed plan. The tra…
How were shares of a tax-exempt-securities business trust valued for Florida's annual intangible tax?
Direct U.S. government obligations and other qualifying exempt assets could support exempt fund value, but federally tax-exempt income alone did not create a property-tax exemption. If the non-U.S.-ob…
Which of eleven open-end loan forms were subject to Florida documentary stamp tax?
Florida taxed the HomeEquity Mortgage on its initial and future advances and taxed the Guarantor's Agreement when signed by a co-maker, based on the stated principal. The other submitted forms lacked …
Were a lender's open-end advance request and security agreement subject to Florida documentary stamp tax?
No. Although the borrower signed the documents and they described the requested amount and collateral, neither contained a written promise to pay, so they lacked all three elements required for tax. A…
Were meals sold to students by the nonprofit K-12 school in PLR 94-6 exempt from South Carolina sales tax?
Yes. The school's cafeteria meals qualified because they were sold to kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade students, within the school setting, and the meal program was operated without profit.
Does Texas sales tax apply to a company's service of picking up hazardous chemical waste, processing it to meet state disposal requirements, and hauling it to a disposal site?
No — the Comptroller ruled that the company's service of picking up hazardous chemical waste, processing it to meet state requirements, and transporting it to a disposal site is not a taxable service.…
Did PLR 94-5 preserve job-tax credits when new employees moved from a leased plant to a permanent plant in the same industrial park?
Yes, on the stated facts. The jobs qualified for a $1,000 regular credit plus a $500 multi-county-industrial-park credit for years two through six, provided every other statutory requirement was met. …
When goods originate in New Jersey, are sent to New York contractors for processing, and are returned to New Jersey, where are they located for the Article 9-A property factor?
They are located where they physically sit, with in-transit goods deemed at their destination. McNaughton's piece goods are cut in New Jersey, sent to sewing contractors in and out of New York, then r…
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