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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How does a cooperative housing corporation value the real property it owns for purposes of the Article 9-A capital base?
At fair market value -- but the actual value is a factual question. For the Article 9-A capital base, a cooperative housing corporation (defined in IRC section 216) is taxed under section 210.1(b)…
How does a cooperative housing corporation determine the fair market value of its real property for the Article 9-A capital base when only the assessed valuation is known?
By fair market value -- which is a factual determination, not simply the assessed value. For the Article 9-A capital base, a cooperative housing corporation (IRC section 216) is taxed under section…
Is the New York net operating loss deduction limited to the amount of the federal net operating loss deduction, and does that limitation require adjustments when assets are later disposed of?
Yes -- the New York net operating loss deduction is capped at the federal amount. Under section 208.9(f), the New York NOL for a loss year is computed under section 208.9(f)(1), but the deduction…
Was an uninterruptible power supply installed at an Air Force base machinery and equipment that could be bought for resale, or a taxable fixture?
It was a fixture because it was essential to the base's power system and intended as a permanent real-property component; its conduit and wiring were also taxable.
Can a security services contractor buy tax-free parts and materials to repair vehicles it uses solely to guard a tax-exempt nonprofit's property?
No. The Comptroller ruled that even though the nonprofit is tax-exempt and the vehicles are used exclusively for its security contract, the security services contractor — not the nonprofit — is the…
Is building additional rows of sky boxes, a media box, and extra stadium seating treated as new construction or as remodeling for Texas tax purposes?
New construction. The Comptroller ruled that all four stadium improvements described — a second row of sky boxes, a new media box, additional seating above the entry ramps, and an additional row of…
Were airport privilege fees and space/use permit fees taxable when paid by an in-flight food-service provider?
Yes. Florida found the provider was not an airport retail concessionaire because it supplied airlines rather than selling directly to the public. Privilege fees were additional consideration under…
Did a lump-sum transfer of substantially all usable aerospace-business assets qualify as an occasional or isolated sale?
Yes, under the represented transaction-frequency facts. Florida distinguished the one-time transfer of operating business assets from the seller's recurring obsolete and salvage sales. Aircraft,…
Could a golf course avoid tax on its prime golf-cart lease when some carts were periodically used by employees?
Only for carts devoted exclusively to customer re-leasing. Florida approved segregating employee-use carts: prime rent on those carts was taxable, while rent on the remaining no-incidental-use fleet…
Did PLR 94-1 impose South Carolina sales, use, or property tax on equipment sold for foreign resale and temporarily stored in-state?
No, on the stated facts. The sale to the foreign company was a wholesale sale for resale, and the equipment remained exempt inventory while temporarily stored in South Carolina before export.
An Industrial Development Board leased property to a company before Alabama's 1992 Tax Incentive Reform Act, but the company forgot to give the written notice needed to renew the lease. Does missing that notice make the property taxable, or does the pre-1992 tax exemption continue?
The exemption continues. Company A leased Industrial Development Board (IDB) property under a 1976 lease with a written option to renew by about November 1, 1991. It forgot to give the written…
Did an out-of-state nonprofit association have to register and collect Florida tax on publications mailed to members when it had no physical presence?
Under the ruling's 1994 physical-presence analysis, no. Florida could not require registration or collection where the association's only connection was resident members. Florida recipients still…
Were a mall food-court juice bar's fruit juice, ice cream, and yogurt sales taxable under the 80/80 rule?
Yes. All four food-court units under one permit were combined; 91% of sales came from meals and hot food, so juice-bar sales were taxable except allowed resale sales.
Was a commercial equipment agreement labeled a lease actually taxable rent, and what amount bore documentary stamp tax?
It was a secured financing contract, not a sales-tax lease, because the customer acquired title and possession directly from the vendor while the affiliate only advanced funds and held a security…
Which generating-plant machinery, services, and construction items qualified for Florida's historical energy-production exemption?
Florida applied the integrated-plant theory to exempt machinery and equipment necessary to fixed-site electric or steam production, including qualifying pollution-control and production systems.…
Did a Florida-resident service member owe use tax when titling and registering in Florida a vehicle bought and kept outside the state?
Yes, unless the vehicle had already been lawfully used outside Florida for at least six months when Florida title or registration was sought and the applicable out-of-state tax had been paid.…
Did three free weekly publications qualify for Florida's community-newspaper sales-tax exemption, and how could prior printing tax be recovered?
Yes. Florida found all three met the historical community-newspaper tests, including certified advertising and general-news proportions. The publisher could give its printer a blanket exemption…
Did a 1994 California memorandum tax a food-contamination inspection that usually delivered only a report?
No, under the stated facts. The report service was the true object, and film supplied only when contamination was found was incidental if no additional charge applied. The provider consumed property…
Were a section 501(c)(3) foundation's quarterly member periodicals exempt despite one paid advertiser, and what about copies sold to nonmembers?
Member and contributor distributions qualified under section 6362.8(b)(1); nonmember sales were not exempt if copies contained paid commercial advertising.
Was a $199 lump-sum fee for weight-loss counseling, classes, reference materials, and audio and video tapes taxable?
Yes. On the stated facts, staff counsel attributed the large increase to the tapes and treated the entire lump-sum fee as taxable receipts.
Is a foreign corporation that is a general partner in a partnership owning a Texas apartment building subject to Texas franchise tax?
Yes. The Comptroller advised that a Wisconsin corporation that owns a general-partnership interest in a Wisconsin partnership whose main asset is a Texas apartment building has franchise-tax nexus,…
Did a 1994 California memorandum tax a contract whose ultrasound or computer-assisted topography images became the report?
Yes. With no professional interpretation or conclusion, the paper image itself was the report and the contract's true object was tangible personal property. The full charge was taxable without…
Can a wholesaler that buys a custom mold under a written agreement claim the 50% manufacturing sales tax reduction on that mold?
No — the customer, a wholesaler of auto parts, may not claim the 50% state sales tax reduction on a special mold it bought under a separate written agreement, even though the mold has a useful life…
Does equipment used to load a manufactured liquid product into barges, railroad tank cars, or truck tank trailers (loading arms, piping, instrumentation, pollution control equipment) qualify for the Texas manufacturing exemption or the wrapping/packaging exemption?
No. The Comptroller ruled that loading arms and piping used to move a manufactured liquid into barges, railroad tank cars, and truck tank trailers are intraplant transportation equipment, not…
How are office/vending trailers taxed in Texas after the 10/1/1993 change, and what happens when an out-of-state buyer picks one up here?
Effective October 1, 1993, trailers of this type (previously taxed as motor vehicles under Tax Code Chapter 152) are taxed under the sales tax instead. They still count as motor vehicles for title,…
Does Texas sales tax or motor vehicle tax apply to food and beverage special events trailers?
Sales tax applies, not motor vehicle tax. The Comptroller ruled that food and beverage special events trailers manufactured and sold by the taxpayer's business are subject to the limited sales and…
Is scanning a document with an OCR scanner and saving it to a diskette a taxable service in Texas?
Yes — OCR (optical character recognition) document scanning is a taxable data processing service. Rule 3.330(a) defines data processing services to include the maintaining, entering, or retrieving…
Were factory-built bank kiosks installed on customer-owned or leased land real-property improvements or taxable tangible property?
They were real-property improvements when intended to remain permanently and title passed to the landowner, making the lump-sum contractor the consumer of materials and subject to cost-based use tax…
Was an equipment sale-leaseback a nontaxable financing arrangement when the company expected to exercise a capped fair-market-value purchase option?
No. Florida classified it as an operating lease because title did not automatically return and the fair-market-value option was not nominal under the rule. Every lease payment was taxable. The…
Did jewelry stores prove their prices included sales-tax reimbursement by producing Japanese-language signs and inconsistent invoices after the audit?
No. The evidence did not show the signs were posted during the audit period, and invoices sometimes added tax separately, contradicting a consistent tax-included practice.
Was an independent contractor's labor taxable when producing newspaper paste-ups containing type and artwork?
Yes. Combining typed matter with illustrations or other artwork into a paste-up was taxable fabrication labor, and the publisher used the paste-up as a manufacturing aid.
Who consumed structural-steel materials when a separate joint venture contracted to furnish and install them but its venturers performed the fabrication and erection?
The joint venture consumed materials because it owed both duties. A venturer doing fabrication alone made a taxable sale; a venturer obligated to fabricate and install consumed its work.
Was only two-thirds of a horse auction taxable when a one-third partner bought the partnership's horses, and was a catalogue logo composed type?
No on both claims. The partnership-to-partner transfer changed ownership, so the full price was taxable, and the California-bred logo was taxable artwork rather than composed type.
Did an aircraft and its later corporate transfer qualify when FAA authorization for that aircraft came late in the 12-month use periods?
No. Pre-certification flights could not count as common carriage, and the documented post-certification hours were insufficient. The corporate transfer's tax measure was reduced by $550,000.
Is selling subscribers online access to a company's land-records database a taxable computer and data processing service in Connecticut?
Yes. A company that manually collects real-property transfer data from town records, loads it into its own daily-updated database, and sells subscribers 24-hour searchable access is rendering…
Were formation-stage vehicle transfers from a parent to a subsidiary and then to a partnership subject to Texas tax?
No tax was due if the parent received only subsidiary stock and the subsidiary later received only a partnership interest, assuming the parent had paid the correct original vehicle tax. Any…
Did separate 30-day and 19-day contracts for the same vehicle and customer each receive Texas short-term rental treatment?
Yes. The 30-day contract and the following 19-day contract were each treated as a rental of 30 days or less and each was subject to the historical short-term rental tax. The letter's 10% rate is…
Is a general contractor's charge to provide and install a temporary mobile office trailer, including wiring and security system installation, taxable in Texas?
Yes — the entire change-order charge is taxable. Effective October 1, 1993, mobile offices are treated as tangible personal property (not motor vehicles), so their rental or sale is subject to sales…
Did a letter submitting the seller's final return and notifying California of an asset purchase count as a request for a tax clearance certificate?
No. A clearance request had to be clear and unambiguous, and the letter never asked for a certificate. Successor tax remained due, but California waived the predecessor's penalty because the buyer…
Were charges for editing requested television-news segments onto videotapes taxable, and did alleged oral Board advice excuse the tax?
The full charge was taxable because customers bought finished videotapes, not editing alone; alleged oral advice did not satisfy the written-advice requirement for relief.
Could specially ordered advertising inserts delivered to magazines qualify as exempt printed sales messages for both subscription and newsstand copies?
Yes, if the inserts were substantially promotional and readers received them at no added cost. The magazine itself did not need to be an exempt periodical.
Does mistakenly depreciating a truck and trailer create use tax when convincing evidence shows they were bought for resale and never otherwise used?
Not necessarily. The Board recommended no use tax because the depreciation was erroneous and produced no tax advantage, convincing evidence showed the vehicles were bought for resale, and the…
Could gasoline stations claim refunds of the unconstitutional SDJF district tax when their pumps said all taxes were included in the price?
No. The pump notice showed customers reimbursed the tax through included pricing, so customers bore the economic burden and received SB 263's tax-credit remedy.
Did UPS delivery from a printer to an affiliated directory-distribution company make the printer's sale exempt?
Not by itself. The affiliate also had to be truly separate from the purchaser and qualify as a compensated mailing house that prepared property for mailing.
Were ski rentals under $20 and under one day excluded from lease tax when customers took the equipment from an independent shop to nearby resorts?
No. The short-use exclusion required use on the lessor's premises, so ex-tax skis taken to resorts produced taxable rental receipts.
Did a California publisher owe use tax on free catalogs bought out of state, stored in its California warehouse, and later mailed nationwide?
Yes. The publisher completed the gifts when it handed catalogs to carriers or USPS in California, so its functional use occurred here; storage-for-out-of-state-use and 90-day arguments did not apply.
Is the preservation (administrative) fee a city's auto pound charges to release an impounded vehicle subject to Texas sales tax?
Yes. The Comptroller ruled that sales tax is due on parking and storage fees for a motor vehicle, including the preservation fee the City's Auto Pound Division charges for impounded vehicles.
Does South Carolina's year-end 1993 policy index PDF contain the promised document entries?
No. The notice says a policy-document index is attached, but the current official two-page PDF stops after listing seven major categories and contains no document-by-document entries.
Does South Carolina's year-end 1993 policy citator PDF contain the promised status entries and exhibits?
No. The notice says a policy-document citator is attached, but the official three-page PDF ends after its definitions and cumulative-topic explanation. It contains no document-level status entries…
What evidence did California use to distinguish a property investor or collector from a retailer holding goods for resale?
Investment and collection purchases were retail sales. California listed eight business indicia, including public sales activity, records, suppliers, transaction volume, permits, priced merchandise,…
Did agency language make an advertising company a true purchasing agent when it used resale certificates, marked up vendor costs, and transferred client-review layouts?
No. Its conduct showed retailer status, and physical delivery transferred title to the layouts despite delayed-title language; art-direction charges required reaudit.
What did South Carolina announce about public access to Commission decisions through the end of 1993?
Sanitized Commission Decisions and an index covering 1987 through December 31, 1993 were available for public review at the University of South Carolina School of Law Library and Department taxpayer…
What 1993 base-period T-bill rate applied to South Carolina deferred tax liability for DISCs and foreign trade receipts?
The September 30, 1993 base-period T-bill rate was 3.47%. For a normal 365-day taxable year, the notice gave a daily-compounded annual factor of .03531; a different factor was needed for short…
How is tax measured when a video-rental business lets employees borrow rental tapes for free?
On these facts, tax was measured by fair rental value for each employee loan—not the tapes' purchase price. The videos remained held for continuing taxable rentals, and occasional free employee use…
Could a cabinet contractor recover California tax paid on materials later used to build cabinets piece by piece at Nevada job sites?
No. The cabinets were not prefabricated fixtures under the historical 90-percent test, so the contractor consumed the materials and could not claim tax-paid purchases resold.
When a commonly-owned partnership contributes equipment and real estate to a joint venture with a commonly-owned corporation, and profits/losses are split, does that create a taxable equipment rental, and is the profit/loss share taxable consideration for using the equipment?
No to both. The Comptroller ruled that no taxable rental of equipment occurs between the commonly owned corporation, the partnership, and the joint venture, provided sales or use tax was already…
Is a process-serving business's court-record research, photocopying, faxing, and delivery of legal documents subject to New York sales tax?
Process serving itself is not taxable, and neither are pickup, filing, and delivery of receipted copies or affidavits performed as part of process serving. But faxing copies of court documents to…
Five families own six semi-attached condominium homes and want to convert to plain fee-simple ownership instead. That means briefly passing through a moment of joint tenants-in-common title before each family gets its own home back. Does converting out of the condominium form trigger New York's Real Property Transfer Gains Tax, and do we have to add all our home values together to test the $1 million threshold?
The conversion itself was exempt -- no gains tax was owed, and no aggregation mattered, because there was no real change in who owned what. Five families owned six semi-attached condominium units in…
Did free technology publications qualify as periodicals or printed sales messages, and how did California measure their advertising content?
The periodical exemption applied conditionally; Net Age was not a printed sales message because only 9 of 19 pages were advertising.
Did sales tax apply when a mold contract was canceled before any property or title was transferred?
No. With no transfer of property or pre-delivery title passage, no taxable sale occurred; the fabricator could still owe use tax on materials bought for resale.
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