297A.68 Business exemptions.
Subdivision 1. Scope. The gross receipts from the sale of, and storage, distribution, use, or consumption of the items contained in this section are specifically exempted from the taxes imposed by this chapter.
Subd. 2. Materials consumed in industrial production. (a) Materials stored, used, or consumed in industrial production of personal property intended to be sold ultimately at retail are exempt, whether or not the item so used becomes an ingredient or constituent part of the property produced. Materials that qualify for this exemption include, but are not limited to, the following:
(1) chemicals, including chemicals used for cleaning food processing machinery and equipment;
(2) materials, including chemicals, fuels, and electricity purchased by persons engaged in industrial production to treat waste generated as a result of the production process;
(3) fuels, electricity, gas, and steam used or consumed in the production process, except that electricity, gas, or steam used for space heating or lighting is exempt only if it is necessary to produce that particular industrial product;
(4) petroleum products and lubricants;
(5) packaging materials, including returnable containers used in packaging food and beverage products;
(6) accessory tools, equipment, and other items that are separate detachable units with an ordinary useful life of less than 12 months used in producing a direct effect upon the product; and
(7) the following materials, tools, and equipment used in metalcasting: crucibles, thermocouple protection sheaths and tubes, stalk tubes, refractory materials, molten metal filters and filter boxes, degassing lances, and base blocks.
(b) This exemption does not include:
(1) machinery, equipment, implements, tools, accessories, appliances, contrivances and furniture and fixtures, except those listed in paragraph (a), clause (6); and
(2) petroleum and special fuels used in producing or generating power for propelling ready-mixed concrete trucks on the public highways of this state.
(c) Industrial production includes, but is not limited to, research, development, design or production of any tangible personal property, manufacturing, processing (other than by restaurants and consumers) of agricultural products (whether vegetable or animal), commercial fishing, refining, smelting, reducing, brewing, distilling, printing, mining, quarrying, lumbering, generating electricity and the production of road building materials. Industrial production does not include painting, cleaning, repairing or similar processing of property except as part of the original manufacturing process.
Subd. 3. Materials used in providing certain taxable services. (a) Materials stored, used, or consumed in providing a taxable service listed in section 297A.61, subdivision 16, paragraph (g), intended to be sold ultimately at retail are exempt.
(b) This exemption includes, but is not limited to:
(1) chemicals, lubricants, packaging materials, seeds, trees, fertilizers, and herbicides, if these items are used or consumed in providing the taxable service;
(2) chemicals used to treat waste generated as a result of providing the taxable service;
(3) accessory tools, equipment, and other items that are separate detachable units used in providing the service and that have an ordinary useful life of less than 12 months; and
(4) fuel, electricity, gas, and steam used or consumed in the production process, except that electricity, gas, or steam used for space heating or lighting is exempt only if it is necessary to produce that particular taxable service.
(c) This exemption does not include machinery, equipment, implements, tools, accessories, appliances, contrivances, furniture, and fixtures used in providing the taxable service.
Subd. 4. Taconite production materials. Mill liners, grinding rods, and grinding balls that are substantially consumed in the production of taconite are exempt when sold to or stored, used, or consumed by persons taxed under the in-lieu provisions of chapter 298.
Subd. 5. Capital equipment. (a) Capital equipment is exempt. The tax must be imposed and collected as if the rate under section 297A.62, subdivision 1, applied, and then refunded in the manner provided in section 297A.75.
"Capital equipment" means machinery and equipment purchased or leased and used in this state by the purchaser or lessee primarily for manufacturing, fabricating, mining, or refining tangible personal property to be sold ultimately at retail.
Capital equipment means machinery and equipment essential to the integrated production process. Capital equipment also includes machinery and equipment used to electronically transmit results retrieved by a customer of an online computerized data retrieval system.
(b) Capital equipment includes, but is not limited to:
(1) machinery and equipment used to operate, control, or regulate the production equipment;
(2) machinery and equipment used for research and development, design, quality control, and testing activities;
(3) environmental control devices that are used to maintain conditions such as temperature, humidity, light, or air pressure when those conditions are essential to and are part of the production process;
(4) materials and supplies used to construct and install machinery or equipment;
(5) repair and replacement parts, including accessories, whether purchased as spare parts, repair parts, or as upgrades or modifications to machinery or equipment;
(6) materials used for foundations that support machinery or equipment;
(7) materials used to construct and install special purpose buildings used in the production process; and
(8) ready-mixed concrete trucks in which the ready-mixed concrete is mixed as part of the delivery process.
(c) Capital equipment does not include the following:
(1) motor vehicles taxed under chapter 297B;
(2) machinery or equipment used to receive or store raw materials;
(3) building materials, except for materials included in paragraph (b), clauses (6) and (7);
(4) machinery or equipment used for nonproduction purposes, including, but not limited to, the following: plant security, fire prevention, first aid, and hospital stations; support operations or administration; pollution control; and plant cleaning, disposal of scrap and waste, plant communications, space heating, lighting, or safety;
(5) farm machinery and aquaculture production equipment as defined by section 297A.61, subdivisions 12 and 13;
(6) machinery or equipment purchased and installed by a contractor as part of an improvement to real property; or
(7) any other item that is not essential to the integrated process of manufacturing, fabricating, mining, or refining.
(d) For purposes of this subdivision:
(1) "Machinery" means mechanical, electronic, or electrical devices, including computers and computer software, that are purchased or constructed to be used for the activities set forth in paragraph (a).
(2) "Equipment" means independent devices or tools separate from machinery, including computers and computer software, used in operating, controlling, or regulating machinery and equipment; and any subunit or assembly comprising a component of any machinery or accessory or attachment parts of machinery, such as tools, dies, jigs, patterns, and molds.
(3) "Primarily" means machinery and equipment used 50 percent or more of the time in an activity described in paragraph (a).
(4) "Manufacturing" means an operation or series of operations where raw materials are changed in form, composition, or condition by machinery and equipment and which results in the production of a new article of tangible personal property. For purposes of this subdivision, "manufacturing" includes the generation of electricity or steam to be sold at retail.
(5) "Fabricating" means to make, build, create, produce, or assemble components or property to work in a new or different manner.
(6) "Mining" means the extraction of minerals, ores, stone, or peat.
(7) "Refining" means the process of converting a natural resource to a product, including the treatment of water to be sold at retail.
(8) "Integrated production process" means a process beginning with the removal of raw materials from inventory through the completion of the product, including packaging of the product.
(9) "Online data retrieval system" means a system whose cumulation of information is equally available and accessible to all its customers.
(10) "Machinery and equipment used for pollution control" means machinery and equipment used solely to eliminate, prevent, or reduce pollution resulting from an activity described in paragraph (a).
Subd. 6. Special tooling. Special tooling is exempt. "Special tooling" means tools, dies, jigs, patterns, gauges, and other special tools that have value and use only for the buyer and for the use for which they are made. An item has value and use only to the buyer if the item is not standard enough to be stocked or ordered from a catalog or other sales literature, but must be produced in accordance with special requirements peculiar to the buyer and not common to someone else whose conditions for possible use of the material are reasonably similar to the buyer's.
Subd. 7. Air cooling equipment. Equipment used for air cooling is exempt, if the equipment is purchased for conversion or replacement of an existing groundwater-based once-through cooling system as required under section 103G.271, subdivision 5.
Subd. 8. Pollution control equipment. Pollution control equipment purchased by a steel reprocessing firm is exempt if the equipment is necessary to meet state or federal emission standards. For purposes of this subdivision:
(1) "pollution control equipment" means equipment used for the purpose of eliminating, preventing, or reducing air, land, or water pollution during or as a result of the manufacturing process; and
(2) "steel reprocessing firm" means a firm whose primary business is the recovery of steel from automobiles, appliances, and other steel products and the rerefining of this recovered metal into new steel products.
Subd. 9. Super Bowl admissions. The granting of the privilege of admission to a world championship football game sponsored by the national football league is exempt.
Subd. 10. Publications; publication materials. Tangible personal property that is used or consumed in producing any publication regularly issued at average intervals not exceeding three months is exempt, and any such publication is exempt. "Publication" includes, but is not limited to, a qualified newspaper as defined by section 331A.02, together with any supplements or enclosures. "Publication" does not include magazines and periodicals sold over the counter. Tangible personal property that is used or consumed in producing a publication does not include machinery, equipment, implements, tools, accessories, appliances, contrivances, furniture, and fixtures used in the publication, or fuel, electricity, gas, or steam used for space heating or lighting.
Advertising contained in a publication is a nontaxable service and is exempt. Persons who publish or sell newspapers are engaging in a nontaxable service with respect to gross receipts realized from such news-gathering or news-publishing activities, including the sale of advertising.
Subd. 11. Advertising materials. Material designed to advertise and promote the sale of merchandise or services is exempt if the material is purchased and stored for the purpose of subsequently shipping or otherwise transferring outside the state by the purchaser for later use solely outside the state of Minnesota. Mailing and reply envelopes and cards used exclusively in connection with these advertising and promotional materials are included in this exemption regardless of where the mailing occurs.
Subd. 12. Wind energy conversion systems. Wind energy conversion systems, as defined in section 216C.06, subdivision 12, that are used as an electric power source are exempt, and the materials used to manufacture, install, construct, repair, or replace them are exempt.
Subd. 13. Outstate transport or delivery. (a) Tangible personal property is exempt if the property, without intermediate use, is:
(1) shipped or transported outside Minnesota by the purchaser or is stored, processed, fabricated or manufactured into, attached to or incorporated into other tangible personal property that is transported or shipped outside Minnesota; and
(2) used in a trade or business outside Minnesota after being shipped or transported outside of Minnesota, and is not returned to Minnesota, except in the course of interstate commerce; and
(3) either (i) not subject to tax in the state or country to which it is transported for storage or use, or (ii) to be used in other states or countries as part of a maintenance contract.
(b) For purposes of this subdivision, storage or processing, fabricating, manufacturing, attaching to, or incorporating into other property is not intermediate use.
Subd. 14. Temporary storage. Tangible personal property is exempt if all of the following conditions are met:
(1) it is shipped or brought into Minnesota by a common carrier;
(2) without intermediate use, it is kept in a public warehouse;
(3) it is kept for the purpose of being later transported outside Minnesota; and
(4) after storage, it is used solely outside Minnesota, except in the course of interstate commerce.
Subd. 15. Outstate delivery by seller. Property is exempt if:
(1) it is delivered in one of the following ways:
(i) delivery by the seller to a common carrier for delivery outside Minnesota;
(ii) placement in the United States mail or parcel post directed to the purchaser outside Minnesota; or
(iii) delivery to the purchaser outside Minnesota by means of the seller's own delivery vehicles; and
(2) it is not later returned to a point within Minnesota, except in the course of interstate commerce.
Subd. 16. Packing materials. Packing materials used to pack and ship household goods are exempt if the ultimate destination of the goods is outside Minnesota and if the goods are not later returned to a point within Minnesota, except in the course of interstate commerce.
Subd. 17. Ships used in interstate commerce. Repair, replacement, and rebuilding parts and materials, and lubricants, for ships or vessels used or to be used principally in interstate or foreign commerce are exempt. Vessels with a gross registered tonnage of at least 3,000 tons are exempt.
Subd. 18. Custom computer software. The design, development, writing, translation, fabrication, lease, or transfer for a consideration of title or possession of a custom computer program is exempt. "Custom computer program" means a computer program prepared to the special order of the customer, either in the form of written procedures or in the form of storage media on which, or in which, the program is recorded, or any required documentation or manuals designed to facilitate the use of the custom computer program transferred. It includes those services represented by separately stated charges for modifications to an existing prewritten program that are prepared to the special order of the customer. It does not include a "canned" or prewritten computer program that is held or existing for general or repeated sale or lease, even if the prewritten or "canned" program was initially developed on a custom basis or for in-house use. Modification to an existing prewritten program to meet the customer's needs is custom computer programming only to the extent of the modification.
Subd. 19. Petroleum products. The following petroleum products are exempt:
(1) products upon which a tax has been imposed and paid under chapter 296A, and for which no refund has been or will be allowed because the buyer used the fuel for nonhighway use;
(2) products that are used in the improvement of agricultural land by constructing, maintaining, and repairing drainage ditches, tile drainage systems, grass waterways, water impoundment, and other erosion control structures;
(3) products purchased by a transit system receiving financial assistance under section 174.24 or 473.384;
(4) products used in a passenger snowmobile, as defined in section 296A.01, subdivision 39, for off-highway business use as part of the operations of a resort as provided under section 296A.16, subdivision 2, clause (2); or
(5) products purchased by a state or a political subdivision of a state for use in motor vehicles exempt from registration under section 168.012, subdivision 1, paragraph (b).
Subd. 20. Natural gas in vehicles. Natural gas to be used as a fuel in vehicles propelled by natural gas is exempt.
Subd. 21. Snowmaking. Electricity used to make snow for outdoor use for ski hills, ski slopes, or ski trails is exempt.
Subd. 22. Copies of court reporter documents. Transcripts or copies of transcripts of verbatim testimony are exempt if produced and sold by court reporters or other transcribers of legal proceedings to individuals or entities that are parties to or representatives of parties to the proceeding to which the transcript relates.
Subd. 23. Automatic fire-safety sprinkler systems. Automatic fire-safety sprinkler systems described in section 273.11, subdivision 6a, are exempt.
Subd. 24. Waste processing equipment. Equipment used for processing solid or hazardous waste at a resource recovery facility, as defined in section 115A.03, subdivision 28, is exempt, including pollution control equipment at a resource recovery facility that burns refuse-derived fuel or mixed municipal solid waste as its primary fuel.
Subd. 25. Occasional sales. (a) Isolated or occasional sales of tangible personal property in Minnesota not made in the normal course of business of selling that kind of property are exempt. The storage, use, or consumption of property acquired as a result of such a sale is exempt.
(b) This exemption applies to a sale of tangible personal property primarily used in a trade or business only if one of the following conditions is satisfied: (1) the sale occurs in a transaction subject to or described in section 118, 331, 332, 336, 337, 338, 351, 355, 368, 721, 731, 1031, or 1033 of the Internal Revenue Code; (2) the sale is between members of a controlled group as defined in section 1563(a) of the Internal Revenue Code; (3) the sale is a sale of farm machinery; (4) the sale is a farm auction sale; (5) the sale is a sale of substantially all of the assets of a trade or business; or (6) the total amount of gross receipts from the sale of trade or business property made during the calendar month of the sale and the preceding 11 calendar months does not exceed $1,000.
(c) For purposes of this subdivision, the following terms have the meanings given.
(1) A "farm auction" is a public auction conducted by a licensed auctioneer if substantially all of the property sold consists of property used in the trade or business of farming and property not used primarily in a trade or business.
(2) "Trade or business" includes the assets of a separate division, branch, or identifiable segment of a trade or business if, before the sale, the income and expenses attributable to the separate division, branch, or identifiable segment could be separately ascertained from the books of account or record (the lease or rental of an identifiable segment does not qualify for the exemption).
(3) A "sale of substantially all of the assets of a trade or business" must occur as a single transaction or a series of related transactions within the 12-month period beginning on the date of the first sale of assets intended to qualify for the exemption provided in paragraph (b), clause (5).
Subd. 26. Interstate WATS lines. Long distance telephone services are exempt if the service (1) consists of a wide area telephone line that permits a long distance call to an individual or business located in Minnesota to be made from a location outside of Minnesota at no toll charge to the person placing the call; or (2) entitles a customer, upon payment of a periodic charge that is determined either as a flat amount or upon the basis of total elapsed transmission time, to the privilege of an unlimited number of long distance calls made from a location in Minnesota to a location outside of Minnesota if the customer is a qualified provider of telemarketing services. As used in this subdivision, a "qualified provider of telemarketing services" is a telemarketing firm that derives at least 80 percent of its revenues from one or more of the following activities: soliciting or providing information, soliciting sales or receiving orders, and conducting research by means of telegraph, telephone, computer database, fiber optic, microwave, or other communication system.
Subd. 27. Motor vehicles. Motor vehicles taxable under the provisions of chapter 297B are exempt.
Subd. 28. Medical supplies. Medical supplies purchased by a licensed health care facility or licensed health care professional to provide medical treatment to residents or patients are exempt. The exemption does not apply to medical equipment or components of medical equipment, laboratory supplies, radiological supplies, and other items used in providing medical services. For purposes of this subdivision, "medical supplies" means adhesive and nonadhesive bandages, gauze pads and strips, cotton applicators, antiseptics, nonprescription drugs, eye solution, and other similar supplies used directly on the resident or patient in providing medical services.
Subd. 29. Prizes. Tangible personal property that will be given as prizes to players in games of skill or chance is exempt if the games are conducted at events such as community festivals, fairs, and carnivals and if the events last less than six days. This exemption does not apply to property awarded as prizes in connection with lawful gambling as defined in section 349.12 or the state lottery.
Subd. 30. Television commercials. Tangible personal property primarily used or consumed in the preproduction, production, or postproduction of a television commercial is exempt. Any such commercial, regardless of the medium in which it is transferred, is exempt. "Preproduction" and "production" include, but are not limited to, all activities related to the preparation for shooting and the shooting of television commercials, including film processing. Equipment rented for the preproduction and production activities is exempt. "Postproduction" includes, but is not limited to, all activities related to the finishing and duplication of television commercials. This exemption does not apply to tangible personal property used primarily in administration, general management, or marketing. Machinery and equipment purchased for use in producing such commercials and fuel, electricity, gas, or steam used for space heating or lighting are not exempt under this subdivision.
Subd. 31. Waste management containers and compactors. Compactors and waste collection containers are exempt if they are purchased by a waste management service provider and are used in providing waste management services as defined in section 297H.01, subdivision 12. A waste management service provider that does not remit tax on customer charges or lease or rental payments for compactors and waste collection containers under chapter 297H is ineligible for this exemption.
Subd. 32. Events located outside Minnesota. Tickets or admissions to places of amusement located outside Minnesota or to athletic events to be held outside Minnesota are exempt.
Subd. 33. Patent, trademark, and copyright drawings and documents. A drawing, diagram, or similar or related document or a copy of such a document is exempt if the document:
(1) is produced and sold by a patent drafter; and
(2) is for use in:
(i) a patent, trademark, or copyright application to be filed with government agencies;
(ii) an application to the federal Food and Drug Administration for approval of a medical device; or
(iii) a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding, including mediation and arbitration, relating to the validity of or legal rights under a patent, trademark, or copyright.
For purposes of this subdivision, a "patent drafter" is a person who prepares illustrative documents required in the preparation of intellectual property applications.
Subd. 34. Machinery and equipment for ski areas. Tangible personal property used or consumed primarily and directly for tramways at ski areas or in snowmaking and snow-grooming operations at ski hills, ski slopes, or ski trails, including machinery, equipment, fuel, electricity, and water additives used in the production and maintenance of machine-made snow, is exempt.
HIST: 2000 c 418 art 1 s 12,44 subd 3; 2000 c 490 art 8 s 8,14,15
* NOTE: This section, as added by Laws 2000, chapter 418, *article 1, section 12, is effective for sales and purchases *occurring after June 30, 2001. Laws 2000, chapter 418, article *1, section 46.
Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes