Tax Type
Retail Sales and Use Tax
Description
Memorabilia sales; Occasional sales; Number of sales
Topic
Exemptions
Taxability of Persons and Transactions
Date Issued
11-07-1984
November 7, 1984
Re: Request for Ruling/Sales and Use Tax
Dear ********
This will reply to your letter of October 3, 1984, received October 8, 1984, in which you submit a request for a ruling on the applicability of the Virginia sales and use tax to memorabilia sold by the *****.
§ 58-441.4 of the Code of Virginia imposes the sales tax upon "each item or article of tangible personal property when sold at retail or distributed in this State." Therefore, the tax is applicable to all sales unless a transaction is specifically exempted from the tax.
Virginia Code § 58-441.6(m) provides an exemption from the sales and use tax for an "occasional sale." The department has interpreted the term "occasional sale" to mean a sale by a person who is engaged in sales on three or fewer occasions within one calendar year except that sales at fairs, carnivals, etc. are not occasional sales. Therefore, if the ***** sells memorabilia at three or fewer stops in Virginia other than at fairs, carnivals, etc., it will not be necessary to collect the tax on such sales. I have enclosed copies of two proposed regulations which express the department's present policy with respect to such sales. The enclosed regulations will become effective on January 1, 1985.
If the ***** sells memorabilia at more than three stops in Virginia and/or at fairs, carnivals, etc., it will be necessary to collect the tax on those sales inasmuch as an exemption from the sales and use tax does not exist for nonprofit organizations per se or for organizations of the type of the *****. Please feel free to contact the department if further information is needed.
Sincerely,
W. H. Forst
State Tax Commissioner
Rulings of the Tax Commissioner