Alabama Administrative Code
Title 810 - ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
Chapter 810-6-1 - GROSS PROCEEDS OF SALES; GROSS RECEIPTS; WHOLESALE SALES, SALES AT WHOLESALE; RETAIL SALES, SALES AT RETAIL; AUTOMOTIVE VEHICLES
Section 810-6-1-.130 - Printers
Current through Register Vol. 43, No. 02, November 27, 2024
(1) Gross receipts accruing from the retail sales of printed matter of all kinds are subject to the sales tax. (Also see Rule 810-6-1-.137 entitled Raw Materials and Supplies Purchased By Manufacturers and Compounders.)
(2) Sales to consumers of printed matter such as catalogs, books, letterheads, invoice forms, envelopes, folders, advertising circular, and the like by printers or others engaged in selling printed matter are subject to the sales tax. A printer may not deduct from the selling price of such tangible personal property charges for the labor or service of performing the printing even though such labor or service charges may be billed to the customer separately from the charge for the stock. Such labor or service is embodied in and becomes a part of the tangible personal property sold.
(3) Where printers purchased from the United States Post Office stamped cards and envelopes and print thereon various legends for customers, the printers must pay sales tax measured by their gross proceeds of sales of the printed cards or envelopes to the customers. Such cards and envelopes constitute tangible personal property and, if they are not resold by such customers, the sales by the printers are at retail. Such printers will not be required to pay sales tax on the amount of the postage where stated separately in billing to customers.
(4) No tax arises from the service of printing or from the service of typesetting performed by the printer for a customer or for another printer where there is no transfer of ownership of tangible personal property from the printer to his customer. (§ 40-23-1(a)(6)).
(5) Sales of materials to printers are at wholesale, tax free, when such materials become a component of the printed matter produced for sale. The machines used in the printing come within the machine levy and are taxed at the one and one-half percent rate. The supplies, materials, and equipment not becoming a component of the product sold or not constituting a machine used in manufacturing are subject to the sales or use tax, whichever may apply, at the general rate of four percent.
(6) Newspaper advertising supplements or circulars inserted in newspapers usually fall in the following categories:
Author: Ginger Buchanan
Statutory Authority: Code of Ala. 1975, § 40-23-31.