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Ezel / Tax Rulings / CT
CT Ruling 90-59 Sales and Use Taxes 1990-07-25

Were services that monitored individual cable hookups to detect unauthorized reception by non-subscribers subject to Connecticut sales tax?

Short answer: No. Local cable operators used the company to monitor individual hookups and identify non-subscribers using subscribers' lines without authorization. DRS held that this monitoring service was not among the taxable services enumerated in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-407(2)(i), so it was not subject to sales and use tax.

Apply this to your situation

This page answers the general question as of 1990. Ezel answers yours, under current Connecticut 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 Ruling of the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (DRS), typically issued to a specific taxpayer in response to that taxpayer's request and based on the specific facts presented and the Connecticut tax law in effect when it was issued. DRS may later declare a Ruling obsolete or supersede it by a subsequent Ruling, Policy Statement, or Announcement, so a taxpayer with different facts should not assume it still applies. Taxpayer-identifying details are redacted. Connecticut imposes its sales and use tax solely at the state level: there are no local or municipal sales taxes. This summary is informational only and is not legal or tax advice. Consult a licensed Connecticut 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 as a PDF) is the authoritative source for any reliance.
View original ruling (PDF)

Plain-English summary

Local cable operators hired a company to monitor individual hookups and detect non-subscribers who connected to subscriber lines for unauthorized reception.

DRS held the monitoring service was not subject to sales and use tax because it was not included in the taxable-services list in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-407(2)(i).

What this means for you

The ruling covered detection-only monitoring for unauthorized cable use. Security, alarm, protective, or broader data services may present different classifications.

Common questions

Was cable-hookup monitoring taxable? No under the ruling.

Why not? The service was not enumerated in the cited taxable-services provision.

Citations and references

  • Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-407(2)(i).

Source

Original ruling text

Ruling 90-59, Monitoring Services

Ruling 90-59

Monitoring Services

ISSUE:

Whether monitoring services to detect unauthorized reception of cable communications by non-subscribers are subject to the sales and use tax.

FACTS:

Local cable companies have problems with non-subscribers who "hook up" for the unauthorized reception of cable communications using subscribers' lines. In order to detect unauthorized reception of cable communications, Federal law permits local cable operations to use the cable systems to collect personally identifiable information concerning any subscriber without the prior written or electronic consent of the subscriber. Company X carries out the actual monitoring of individual cable hook-ups to detect any unauthorized use.

RULING:

Company X's service of monitoring individual cable hook-ups to detect unauthorized use is not subject to sales and use tax. Such service is not enumerated as subject to tax pursuant to Section 12-407(2)(i) of the General Statutes.

LEGAL DIVISION

July 25, 1990

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