State Tax Rulings
Free state tax letter rulings and advisory opinions with plain-English summaries, full citations, and the original source on every page.
No rulings match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
Is construction equipment furnished with the owner's licensed operator a lease when customers may instead supply their own licensed operator?
Yes. Customer's option to supply a licensed operator gave it selection power, so equipment remained leased even when owner supplied operator.
When is equipment supplied with an operator a lease rather than a service under California's possession-and-control test?
A customer option to take equipment with or without an operator made it a lease; equipment available only with the owner's operator was generally a service.
Were automotive-wheel validation tests taxable as services tied to the sale of taxable production molds?
No. Although the tests incidentally evaluated molds and processes, their primary purpose was validating resale wheels, so the $409,170 measure was canceled.
Were property taxes a commercial tenant paid directly to the taxing authority subject to Florida sales tax as rent?
Yes. The lease required the tenant to pay its proportionate share of real-estate and ad valorem taxes, so those payments were consideration for occupying the property and part of taxable rent.…
How did South Carolina Revenue Ruling 93-9 apply sales and use tax to meals furnished or sold by colleges, hospitals, and their food-service companies?
Institutional meals were taxable at different transaction points: food inputs used for board-plan or patient meals were retail purchases, while separate cash food sales were taxable retail sales by…
What South Carolina tax relief was available to taxpayers affected by the 1993 Midwest flood?
Potential relief included more time to file and pay, suspension of enforced collection, waiver of related penalties, and free replacement returns destroyed by the flood. Other relief could be…
Is Texas sales tax due on fees for recovering or removing freon/refrigerant gas from air conditioners, refrigerators, and vehicles?
No, in the situations described. **The Comptroller ruled that a $5 fee for removing refrigerant gas from a dropped-off appliance is not taxable, and none of the described refrigerant recovery labor…
Was a Florida collector's contribution of a lien-encumbered art collection to a controlled family limited partnership subject to sales tax?
Yes. The collector admitted art sales could occur three or more times in 12 months, including through out-of-state brokers, so the occasional-sale exemption failed. The partnership was a separate…
Were monthly telephone wellness-check and reminder services subject to Florida sales tax?
No. Automated or mechanical calls asked subscribers to confirm they were well, alerted designated contacts after no answer or a request for help, and delivered verbal reminders. The company…
Does a company's new regional distribution center — one that wholesales motor vehicle parts and supplies to the company's own retail stores — qualify as 'private use industrial property' so it can get an Alabama tax abatement under the 1992 Tax Incentive Reform Act?
Yes. Company A, a Virginia corporation, planned an ~$8,000,000 regional distribution center in Gadsden — owned by a public authority and leased to the company — to wholesale motor vehicle supplies,…
Is a charge for the use of a transportable miniature golf course taxable as an amusement service, or as a rental of equipment?
It's taxable, but as a rental, not as an amusement service. **The total charge for a transportable miniature golf course is subject to sales tax under Rule 3.294(b) as the lease or rental of…
In a bond-financed sale-leaseback structure with a city industrial development agency (IDA), are a corporate tenant's affiliate's purchases, leases, and maintenance contracts -- made as the IDA's disclosed agent -- exempt from state and local sales and use tax?
Yes, generally -- purchases, leases, and maintenance/repair/service contracts entered as the IDA's disclosed agent are exempt from sales and use tax as long as the IDA is the true…
Would Florida impose additional stamp or intangible tax when property was conveyed to a partnership already liable on the note and the partnership later renewed it?
No additional documentary stamp tax was due on the partnership's later renewal if the individual and partnership were both original obligors and every requirement of the renewal exemption was met.…
Did an out-of-state municipal fund with no Florida office, people, or property owe Florida corporate or intangible taxes?
The separate fund itself owed neither tax on the stated facts. Its shares were fully exempt from the historical intangible tax only when the valuation-date portfolio was entirely exempt; otherwise…
Which LoanLiner open-end loan forms were subject to Florida documentary stamp tax?
The signed Advance Request Voucher and Security Agreement was taxable on the amount labeled total payment for all accounts. The Subsequent Action Form was taxable only when its extension agreement…
Were an open-end credit agreement, advance request, or lender-issued funds voucher subject to Florida documentary stamp tax?
No. No submitted form contained the complete combination of a written promise to pay, a sum certain, and the borrower's signature. The agreement had the promise and signature but no stated sum; the…
Which county's discretionary surtax applied when a furniture wholesaler delivered a retailer's sales directly to Florida customers?
Under the pre-1994 rules, the answer depended on the retailer, wholesaler, and customer counties, but the retailer always collected. A non-surtax wholesaler triggered surtax only when retailer and…
What motor vehicle tax changes did Texas announce in 1993 for seller-financed sales, EMS vehicles, and mobile offices?
The notice required self-financing dealers to obtain permits and collect tax as payments arrived beginning October 1, 1993; expanded the EMS-vehicle exemption beginning September 1; and moved…
Were photography-only contracts taxable when the photographer delivered exposed film, and could accrued interest be removed because the appeal was delayed?
The photography was taxable fabrication because exposing film was a step toward the photographs or film sought. The reviewer lacked authority to waive statutory interest.
Under South Carolina PLR 93-5, were sales of Lupron exempt when dispensed by a pharmacist or sold by the manufacturer to a physician for administration?
A licensed pharmacist's sale of Lupron under a medical professional's prescription was exempt. LOP's sale to a physician who would administer the drug was taxable because the doctor was the consumer…
Did filing within six months after a determination became final preserve refund claims for older self-assessed taxes that were not included in that determination?
No. The six-month finality period covered amounts included in the determination, not unrelated self-assessed overpayments from otherwise expired periods.
Can a business that charges sales tax on gift-wrapping issue a resale certificate to buy its gift-wrap paper, ribbons, and boxes tax-free?
No. **Sales tax is due on the purchase price of gift-wrapping supplies (paper, ribbons, boxes) bought by a business that provides gift-wrapping services, even though that business separately…
Is a company's on-line and archival data storage service a taxable computer and data processing service in Connecticut?
Partly. A division of a large out-of-state corporation stored Connecticut customers' data at out-of-state facilities, both on-line (customers access it from their own computers) and archival (data…
Could a parent corporation succeed to a Florida LLC's approximately $3 million net operating loss when the LLC merged into the parent?
Yes, if the merger would have qualified under IRC section 381 had the LLC been a corporation and Florida applied the same federal-style limitations to the loss carryovers and other tax attributes.…
Which association charges for trade shows, tournaments, meetings, auctions, seminars, dinners, and publications were subject to Florida sales tax?
The results varied by transaction. Trade-show and auction admissions, free-facility tournament participation, taxable entertainment admissions, and publication sales were taxable. Qualifying…
Were an airport advertising company's concession payments and the amounts advertisers paid to use its display units subject to Florida sales tax?
Yes. The company's concession fee was taxable consideration for a license to use airport real property, and advertisers' payments were taxable consideration for renting or licensing tangible…
Did fine print saying a publisher received payments for beauty-product participants make the publisher only an advertiser rather than the retailer?
No. Customers ordered from, paid, mailed, and telephoned the publisher or its unidentified subsidiary, so they had no reason to believe they were dealing with another seller.
We're a securities broker-dealer buying two office buildings for our headquarters. To avoid putting $500 million of real estate and debt on our own balance sheet -- which would reduce our regulatory net capital under broker-dealer rules -- the seller will transfer title directly to a financing trust instead of to us. The trust will fund the purchase with senior notes, junior notes, and investor certificates, then lease the buildings back to us with a purchase option we can exercise anytime. We'll pay all taxes, insurance, and maintenance, keep all appreciation, bear all depreciation risk, and be treated as the owner for income tax purposes (though not on our own books). None of the financing mortgages will be recorded unless our parent company's credit rating drops. Does this financing structure trigger New York's Real Estate Transfer Tax, Real Property Transfer Gains Tax, or Mortgage Recording Tax at any step?
Exempt at every step described -- Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. structured an off-balance-sheet financing purchase of two Manhattan office buildings (388 and 390 Greenwich Street) so that…
Did California schools, principals, and teachers act as solicitors for an out-of-state seller in a student merchandise fundraiser?
Yes under the historical analysis. Schools displayed samples, solicited and consolidated student orders, collected payments, distributed goods, and received profits or prizes from the program.
Is removing or replacing an underground storage tank (UST) taxable in Texas, and how are the related excavation, hauling, disposal, and installation charges taxed?
It depends on which service is being performed. Excavating and removing a UST (to dispose of it or replace it) is nontaxable demolition of an improvement to real property, but hauling away and…
Was a Medicare Part B contractor's purchase of scanning equipment, software, and a maintenance agreement exempt as a federal-government purchase?
Mostly no. The contractor was an independent taxable entity, not a federal instrumentality, so its equipment, noncustom software, and maintenance agreement were taxable even though federal funds…
When are Texas motor vehicle rentals to public agencies or government employees exempt, and what state-employee rule was later clarified?
Direct rentals to a public agency were exempt. STAR later replaced the letter's blanket denial for state employees: an employee on official business may use an exemption certificate for a rental…
How does the change to Sec. 151.311, Tex. Tax Code, affect materials and supplies purchased under construction contracts entered into before and after October 1, 1993?
It depends on when the contract was signed and when the item was purchased. **The Comptroller approved the taxpayer's revised contract language referencing Sec. 151.311, Tex. Tax Code, for contracts…
Does a bill of lading alone count as proof that goods were exported for a Texas sales tax export exemption?
No, not by itself. **A bill of lading that lacks sufficient detail does not prove the goods were exported, and the Comptroller will not accept a sworn statement made after the fact as a…
Could a contractor return tax-paid California-job materials to inventory, treat them as ex-tax, and later use them on out-of-state projects without tax?
No tax credit arose from returning tax-paid materials to inventory or changing their intended use. Property originally bought for resale could instead shift to qualifying sole out-of-state use.
Were sales and rentals of therapeutic specialty hospital beds to hospitals or individual patients subject to Florida sales tax?
Sales and rentals to hospitals were taxable unless the hospital presented a valid Florida Consumer's Certificate of Exemption at the transaction. A direct sale or rental to an individual patient for…
Was an individual's transfer of a lien-free recreational vehicle to the individual's revocable trust subject to Florida sales tax?
No. Florida treated the trust as a separate person and the title change as a transfer, but it was not a taxable sale because the trust paid no consideration and assumed no lien. The transfer…
Did a motel avoid Florida sales and tourist development taxes by having guests sign agreements lasting slightly longer than six months?
No. Read together, the guest registration, 185-day transient agreement, and motel rules created a taxable transient stay, not a bona fide longer-than-six-month lease. The documents rejected a…
Were charges for carrying passengers and vehicles between two ports on an owner-operated, crewed ferry subject to Florida sales tax?
No. The ferry charges were consideration for the nontaxable service of transporting people or property from one port to another while the owner controlled the vessel and crew. Separate sales of…
Was a final determination invalid because California used the wrong corporate name for the business that was audited and appealed?
No. Staff treated the problem as a clerical misnaming of the same business and recommended that the hearing officer correct it after verifying the legal entity name.
How did Florida's former intangible tax apply to out-of-state investment funds, hub trusts, and shareholder units backed by exempt government obligations?
The out-of-state funds and hub trusts owed no entity-level intangible tax because they lacked Florida taxable situs and commercial domicile. Shareholder units were fully exempt when the underlying…
Did an out-of-state manufacturer lose Public Law 86-272 protection when its Florida employee regularly worked from a desk in a customer's office?
This original ruling said yes: the employee's regular use of a desk in the purchaser's Florida office amounted to maintaining an in-state office. Reconsidered TAA 93C1-002R retained the nexus…
Which document in a lender's open-end LOANLINER package was subject to Florida documentary stamp tax?
Only the signed Advance Request Voucher No. VST004 6826LL was taxable because it contained the required written promise to pay a sum certain. Tax was based on the voucher's stated new balance; the…
Were rental-income insurance proceeds paid to shopping-center landlords after Hurricane Andrew subject to Florida tax on commercial rent?
No. Insurance proceeds paid to the landlords while the damaged property was unfit for occupancy were not taxable rental income because the insurer, not a tenant, paid them and they were not…
Could an operator's successor claim tax-paid resale refunds for every participant in a joint drilling venture?
Only for participants that independently qualified as retailers. Appeals staff allowed the other retailer's 25 percent share and denied shares of nonretailer participants.
How did California tax a software license that let a reseller reproduce a program but also use it internally?
The reproduction-and-distribution right could be excluded, but the part of the license fee attributable to the reseller's internal use was taxable.
Is cleaning acoustical tile ceilings a taxable service in Texas, and does the cleaning company owe tax on the cleaner it buys?
Yes to both. **Cleaning acoustical tile ceilings is a taxable building cleaning service, and the company is correct to charge its customers sales tax on the service.** The letter also confirms the…
Could California impose use tax on bonded liquor served free to passengers while a foreign airline flew in California airspace?
Yes. The recommendation found no treaty or federal-law bar and treated the airline's use of complimentary alcohol in California as taxable.
Is electricity used to dig a flood-drainage tunnel and haul the dirt and rock to the surface exempt from Texas sales/use tax under the gas-and-electricity extraction exemption?
No. The Comptroller's Taxability Response Committee ruled that a contractor building a flood-drainage tunnel is not entitled to the Sec. 151.317(c)(2)(A)(ii) gas-and-electricity exemption on the…
Which assets in the sale of a phosphate business qualified for Florida's resale or occasional-sale exemptions?
Inventory and salvage property held for resale were exempt if the buyer timely gave the seller a proper resale certificate. Mining, processing, and distribution equipment qualified as an occasional…
Could a South Carolina withholding agent use the federal withholding-tax deposit schedule under the 1993 guidance?
Yes. The Department allowed withholding agents to use either the South Carolina deposit due dates or the federal deposit due dates, so deposits generally could be made on the same dates as federal…
Were a calligrapher's handlettered works taxable even when the business earned little, and did the calligrapher need a seller's permit?
Yes, unless every sale qualified for an exclusion such as interstate commerce. Calligraphy was taxable artwork, and low income did not remove the seller-permit duty.
How did California tax master computer tapes delivered to a buyer in Oregon, duplicated there, and returned as copies for California use?
The Oregon transfer of the originals was not taxed. The copies returned to California without intervening use were subject to use tax measured by the blank-tape cost plus duplication charges.
Was the contract value assigned to software and information left on transferred personal computers included in the taxable measure?
Yes. Tax applied to the computers' allocated fair value, including programs remaining on them; the letter treated inventory and tape transfers separately.
Alvin Nathel, a shareholder of an S corporation that never made New York's separate S-corporation election, failed for years to claim the offsetting subtraction that would have kept his corporation's income from being taxed twice - once at the corporate level and again on his personal return. By the time he discovered the error, the ordinary refund deadline had passed for the earlier years. Can the Department use its discretionary special refund authority under Tax Law § 697(d) to refund those time-barred years anyway?
No. The Department ruled that Nathel's error was a mistake of law, not a mistake of fact, because he understood all the relevant facts (that Wishnatzki was a federal S corporation, that its income…
Can Robert J. and Barbara Hanrahan get a 1988 New York income tax refund for tax they mistakenly paid on pension income that should have been excluded, when they only asked for it in 1993, after the ordinary refund deadline had passed?
No. New York denied the refund for two independent reasons: (1) the ordinary three-year refund deadline under Tax Law § 687(a) for the 1988 tax year had already expired by the time the Hanrahans…
Could short condominium rentals qualify for Florida's longer-than-six-month transient-rental exemption based only on an oral lease?
No. Even if an oral lease was otherwise valid, Florida's tax exemption expressly required a bona fide written lease longer than six months. Condominium rentals lasting less than six months and…
Did natural gas used to control the drying rate of paint qualify for Florida's manufacturing boiler-fuel exemption?
No. The Department said the boiler-fuel exemption required the burned fuel to produce a change in the composition of tangible personal property made for sale. Using natural gas only to make paint…
Could a corporation still be 'commencing' if it was formed months before the reorganization and might issue nominal shares before receiving the assets?
Potentially. Incorporation without immediate shares did not automatically prevent commencing-corporation status; counsel required a facts-and-circumstances test. Under the assumed integrated,…
Could first-issued stock remain excluded when a bankrupt company transferred assets to Newco over several weeks before receiving all acquisition shares?
Yes under counsel's assumptions. A short series of asset transfers under one court-approved bankruptcy plan could precede a single issuance of acquisition shares without making that stock taxable…
How these rulings are useful
- See how the rule applies: A letter ruling shows how a state revenue department actually applied the tax law to a specific business and set of facts.
- Plan with confidence: Find a ruling with facts close to yours before you charge, remit, or claim an exemption.
- Binding only on the requester: A ruling is binding on the department only for the taxpayer who asked. It is persuasive, not a substitute for your own ruling or professional advice.
- Research across states: Compare how different states treat the same issue, from SaaS and food exemptions to nexus and contractor purchases.