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 a different search term or clear the filters.
When a Texas repair shop services aircraft engines for licensed and certificated carriers (including foreign carriers), are the labor and materials charges subject to Texas sales tax?
Labor to repair or maintain aircraft, including aircraft engines, is never subject to Texas sales tax. Separately stated materials incorporated into licensed and certificated carrier aircraft (as defi…
Are retyping resumes, printing reprint copies of resumes, and printing personalized stationery on a laser printer subject to New York sales tax?
Retyping a resume from an existing copy is exempt (treated as original typing), and up to three copies provided free at the time of service stay exempt too -- but separate reprint copies of resumes an…
How did RR 94-9 apply South Carolina's historical retirement-income deduction to a surviving spouse?
A surviving spouse generally stepped into the deceased spouse's deduction election for inherited retirement income and could also claim a separate deduction for the survivor's own retirement income. I…
Is preparing and mailing patient billing statements for out-of-state doctors a taxable Texas data processing service?
Yes — preparing accounts-receivable billings from electronically transmitted doctor billing data and mailing them to patients is a taxable Texas data processing service because it is performed by comp…
Is a company taxable on fees it charges a hospital for managing, arranging, or sub-contracting the maintenance and repair of the hospital's clinical equipment?
Yes, generally. Whether billed as a cost-plus contract-management fee or a flat annual asset-management fee, charges to the hospital for managing repair/maintenance of its equipment are taxable as rep…
Can a police officer buy a handgun tax-free for official duty use in Texas?
No, individually — but yes if the government entity buys it. A Texas peace officer cannot buy a personal handgun tax-free just because it's for official duty, and a chief of police's authorization let…
Is a postpartum home-care service (breastfeeding help, parental support, light cleaning, laundry, errands, education) taxable in Texas?
Partly. The cleaning and laundry portions of a postpartum home-care service are taxable (as taxable cleaning/laundry services); the breastfeeding assistance, parental support, errands, organizational …
Is sandblasting a fireplace, ceiling beams, or removing graffiti taxable in Texas?
Yes — sandblasting to clean residential fireplaces or ceiling beams, or to remove graffiti from residential or commercial property, is a taxable real property service under Rule 3.356(a)(7). Sandblast…
If a couple moves their domicile from New York to Connecticut partway through the year but their old, furnished New York City apartment doesn't sell and they still spend more than 183 days in New York that year, are they taxed as full-year New York residents?
Yes. Even assuming their domicile changed to Connecticut on July 7, 1989, the Rogaths were New York 'statutory residents' for the entire 1989 taxable year under Tax Law § 605(b)(1)(B), because they ma…
If I had to repay disability income after a retroactive Social Security disability award pushed it into 'claim of right' territory, and I took the federal standard deduction rather than itemizing, can I get any New York income tax relief for the repayment?
No. New York only provides claim-of-right relief for a repayment through the New York itemized deduction under Tax Law § 615, which is available only if the taxpayer's federal taxable income is also d…
If a car-lease company refunds a lessee an end-of-lease adjustment because the returned vehicle sold for more than its book value, does that reduce taxable receipts and require refunding the sales tax?
Yes. When a motor-vehicle leasing company's end-of-lease 'rental charge adjustment' runs in the LESSEE's favor — because the company sold the returned vehicle for MORE than its book value and pays the…
If a leasing business sells its entire tax-free rental inventory to a new owner along with the business, does the original lessor owe tax under Rule 3.316(g)(1), or can the sale qualify for resale treatment under Rule 3.294?
It depends on whether the buyer issues a resale certificate. If the new owner (purchaser of the business) gives the original lessor a resale certificate covering the entire inventory of lease items an…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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 …
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…
Does a bank subsidiary that elected to keep Article 9-A treatment lose that election when the FDIC sells the parent bank's stock in a transaction treated as a deemed asset sale?
No -- the election survives. Corporation X is a subsidiary of an Article 32 bank that made a proper one-time election under 20 NYCRR 16-2.5(j)(3) to continue being taxed under Article 9-A. When the FD…
Our client died leaving five tenancy-in-common interests in New York real property to her charitable foundation under her will. Rather than deed the properties to the foundation first and then have the foundation deed each one again to five separate title-holding corporations it just formed (one per property), the estate's executors want to deed each property directly from the estate to the matching title-holding corporation, skipping the foundation as an intermediate step. Does conveying directly to the title-holding corporations -- instead of first to the foundation itself -- still count as an exempt bequest, or does the extra corporate layer make it a taxable conveyance subject to the Real Estate Transfer Tax or Real Property Transfer Gains Tax?
Exempt -- conveyances made under a will are excluded from the definition of a taxable 'conveyance' or 'transfer' in the first place, even when the deed runs directly to an alter-ego entity rather than…
Is maintenance work on real property (like a building or elevator) taxable in Texas, or only repair and restoration work?
Only work that is both scheduled and periodic in advance qualifies as nontaxable 'maintenance' under Rule 3.357; if a repair happens because something has already broken down or deteriorated, it's tax…
Is the Texas Comptroller legally allowed to require a sole proprietor's Social Security number and use it to formulate that person's state tax permit number?
Yes. The Comptroller's internal legal analysis concludes that Texas is authorized to collect and use sole proprietors' Social Security numbers when assigning taxpayer permit numbers, because the state…
Our development is a subdivision run by a homeowners association -- each homeowner holds a deed to their own individual lot, and everyone is automatically a member of the association, which separately owns the common areas (athletic facilities, community center). We're proposing to convert the whole thing to a condominium structure: homeowners who opt in would deed their lot to the condominium (through an escrow agent) in exchange for a condominium unit deed covering that exact same lot, plus a proportional interest in the condo's common elements. The homeowners association would keep existing and keep owning the shared common areas as before. Does converting from lot-deed/HOA ownership to condominium ownership trigger New York's Real Estate Transfer Tax or Real Property Transfer Gains Tax?
Exempt -- each homeowner keeps exactly the same beneficial interest in exactly the same lot, just under a different ownership label. Vacation Village Homeowners Association, Inc., a homeowners associa…
Is a registered nurse's medical case management and rehabilitation counseling work for insurance companies taxable as an insurance service in Texas, and does that include reimbursed expenses?
Yes -- the Comptroller ruled that medical case management and rehabilitation counseling services performed for an insurance company are taxable insurance services under Rule 3.355. The tax base includ…
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.