This bill amends Section 44-18-30 of the General Laws in Chapter 44-18 entitled "Sales and Use Taxes Liability and Computation". The amendment adds a new provision exempting certain gross receipts from sales and use taxes. The exempted gross receipts include sales and uses beyond the constitutional power of the state, newspapers, school meals, containers, charitable, educational, and religious organizations, gasoline, and purchases for manufacturing purposes. The amendment also provides definitions for certain terms used in the exemptions, such as "newspaper" and "returnable containers". It also clarifies that the exemption for purchases for manufacturing purposes includes property or services consumed in the process of manufacturing for resale.

This bill amends current law regarding sales and use tax exemptions in Rhode Island. It adds a new exemption for food and food ingredients, with the exception of candy, soft drinks, dietary supplements, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, food sold through vending machines, or prepared food. The prepared food exemption only applies if it is sold by a seller whose primary NAICS classification is manufacturing in sector 311, sold in an unheated state by weight or volume as a single item, and does not include utensils provided by the seller. The bill also adds exemptions for medicines, drugs, and durable medical equipment, prosthetic devices and mobility enhancing equipment, coffins, caskets, urns, shrouds, and burial garments, motor vehicles sold to nonresidents, sales in public buildings by blind people, air and water pollution control facilities, camps, certain institutions, educational institutions, and motor vehicles and adaptive equipment for persons with disabilities. These exemptions apply to the sale, storage, use, or other consumption of the specified items.

Statutes affected:
209: 44-18-30