Tax Type
Retail Sales and Use Tax
Description
Cemeteries and crematoriums; Sales of vaults, urns, markers, etc.
Topic
Property Subject to Tax
Date Issued
12-28-1993
December 28, 1993
Re: §58.1-1821 Application: Retail Sales & Use Tax
Dear**************
This will reply to your letter of May 14, 1993 in which you contested the sales and use tax assessment to your company, ***********(the "Taxpayer") for the period April 1990 through February 1993.
FACTS
The Taxpayer is a cemetery operator who engages in the retail sale of vaults, memorials, vases, and granites. It was recently audited and found to have failed to collect and remit the sales tax on its sale of vaults.
The Taxpayer contests the assessment of the tax on the vaults as he maintains that in 1981 he received information from the department which led him to believe that vaults were real property and thus nontaxable.
DETERMINATION
Section 1-19 of the 1979 Virginia Retail Sales and Use Tax Regulations stated that "[t]he tax applies to all sales of tangible personal property by cemeteries and crematoriums, including boxes, urns, markers, vases and flowers." (Emphasis added.) Virginia Regulation (VR) 630-10-19, adopted on 1/1/85, is virtually identical to the 1979 regulation, except that it expands the examples of taxable tangible personal property and nontaxable real property. Specifically, it states that "[t]he tax applies to all sales of tangible personal property by cemeteries and crematoriums, including boxes, urns, markers, vases, flowers, vaults, and lawn crypts."
Furthermore, Va. Code §57-39.8 includes the definitions for the statutory provisions relating to preneed burial contracts enacted in 1975 and governs businesses such as the Taxpayer. The definition of vaults, therein as "tangible personal property" clearly supports departmental policy of treating vaults as personal property.
Based on the foregoing, I find no basis for correction of the outstanding assessment. A revised Notice of Assessment with accrued interest will be mailed to the Taxpayer as soon as practicable and should be paid within 30 days to avoid the accrual of additional interest and collection activities.
Sincerely,
W. H. Forst
Tax Commissioner
OTP/7244H
Rulings of the Tax Commissioner