A Closer Look At Florida’s Sales Tax Exemptions

Most of the state sales tax (89.7 percent) goes into the General Revenue (GR) Fund, providing three-quarters of total GR funds. Ninety percent of GR goes to education, human services, and public safety. In short, the sales tax is critical to the operation of Florida government. While the sales tax and use tax is responsible for raising the majority of the state’s tax revenue, there are 281 exemptions in law worth billions of dollars more in tax revenue. One of Florida House Speaker Paul Renner’s priorities for the 2023 Session is a review of the sales tax and the sales tax exemptions currently in law. The Speaker asked for Florida TaxWatch’s input in this effort. Florida TaxWatch has performed a thorough review of current sales tax exemptions, not to develop a list of specific exemptions that should be repealed, but rather to identify exemptions that must be retained and those that for which the Legislature could further analyze if it wanted to eliminate exemptions. This report highlights exemptions that are necessary to maintain the nature and structure of the sales tax as a tax on the final retail sale of tangible personal property, such as those that avoid pyramiding. It also highlights exemptions that are required by the Constitution or other controlling law, or those that apply to life’s necessities (e.g., groceries, prescription drugs, residential utilities, etc.). For the others, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Exemptions do not generally fare well when measured against the generally accepted characteristics of good tax policy (neutrality, fairness, simplicity, visibility), although individually they can remediate inequities among subsets of taxpayers and can avoid taxing items that would require an overly complex system for which the cost to administer and collect outweigh the minor amount of revenue raised. Some view sales tax exemptions as a good way to keep taxes on families and businesses low, promote economic development, and support the good work of Florida’s non-profit organizations. Others see them as “loopholes,” “giveaways,” or lost opportunities to raise revenue for government services. Past Florida TaxWatch research on sales tax exemptions has shown that most have at least some justification and some are even essential, but a periodic review of tax breaks is a valuable exercise.

Washington State Sales Tax Exemption

The state of Washington levies a 6.5% state sales tax on the retail sale, lease or rental of most goods and some services. Local jurisdictions impose additional sales taxes ranging between 0.5% and 3.3%. The range of total sales tax rates within the state of Washington is between 7% and 9.9%. Since July 1, 2008, the state of Washington has changed the way in which local sales taxes are to be collected. The local sales tax will now be based on the destination rate of the delivery.

Use tax is also collected on the consumption, use or storage of goods in Washington if sales tax was not paid on the purchase of the goods. The use tax rate is the same as the sales tax rate. Returns are to be filed on or before the 25th day of the month following the month in which the purchases were made. For example, purchases made in the month of January should be reported to the state of Washington on or before the 25th day of February.

Have a question? Contact Aaron Giles, Agile Consulting Group

Aaron Giles - Georgia Sales Tax Exemption For Software

Since most businesses utilize software in their operations, it is important for tax and accounting professionals to recognize how the Georgia sales tax exemption for software impacts their business. GA Comp. R. & Regs. 560-12-2-.111(3)(b) provides a sales tax exemption on the sale, lease, rental, license or use of custom computer software. Custom computer software is defined as, “computer software, including custom updates, which is designed and developed by the author to the specifications of a specific purchaser” per GA Comp. R. & Regs. 560-12-2-.111(2)(e) This Georgia sales tax exemption for custom computer software will apply regardless of how the purchase obtains the software. A purchaser can receive the custom computer software through a tangible medium and it will not affect the taxability of the software since the tangible medium is considered incidental to the sale.

The real essence of the transaction with custom computer software is the professional service provided by the seller in the creation and development of the custom software program. If a software program that is developed to the specifications of a specific purchaser is then distributed for widespread use to different purchasers, the software ceases to be considered custom and would become subject to sales tax as prewritten computer software. However, the original purchaser can obtain multiple copies or license agreements of the custom software that was developed to their specifications and this would meet the criteria for the sales tax exemption.
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