Tax Type
Retail Sales and Use Tax
Description
Printing; Airline magazine
Topic
Taxability of Persons and Transactions
Date Issued
09-19-1997
September 19, 1997
Re: § 58.1-1821 Application: Retail Sales and Use Tax
Dear**************
This will reply to your letter in which seek correction of assessments issued to ********* (the "Taxpayer"), for the period March 1993 through April 1996. I apologize for the delay in responding to your appeal.
FACTS
The Taxpayer is an airline that was audited and assessed use tax on charges made by a printer to print the *********** (the "Magazine"). The Taxpayer provides the Magazine to customers free of charge. Copies of the Magazine are also available to the general public in airports and on a subscription basis. The Taxpayer maintains that the charges for printing the Publication are exempt under Code of Virginia § 58.1-609.16.
DETERMINATION
Code of Virginia § 58.1-609.6(3) provides an exemption from sales and use tax for "[a]ny publication issued daily, or regularly at average intervals not exceeding three months, and advertising supplements and any other printed matter ultimately distributed with or as part of such publications ..." The department has traditionally relied on the definition of "publication" as upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court in Jefferson Publishing Corp. v. Forst, 217 Va. 988, 234 S.E.2d 297 (1977), in determining whether various printed materials qualify as exempt publications. In Jefferson, the court defined 'publication as a “newspaper, magazine or other periodical which is available for general distribution to the public."
Based on the information provided by the Taxpayer, the Magazine meets the interval test required by the statute and is available to the general public. Therefore, the Magazine satisfies the criteria in Code of Virginia § 58.1-609.6(3).
Code of Virginia § 58.1-609.3(2)(v) provides that the retail sales and use tax does not apply to equipment, printing or supplies used directly to produce a publication described in § 58.1-609.6(3), whether the publication is ultimately sold at retail or for resale or distribution at no cost. Because the Magazine satisfies the publications exemption criteria, the printing used to produce the Magazine may be purchased exempt of the tax. Accordingly, the portion of the tax assessments associated with the cost of printing the Magazine will be removed.
The Taxpayer has paid the uncontested portion of the assessments; therefore, the balance of the assessments will be abated in full. If you have any questions concerning this determination, please contact***** at***************.
Sincerely,
Danny M. Payne
Tax Commissioner
OTP/11907S
Rulings of the Tax Commissioner