Search Category: Sales Tax

Printing and Publishing Laws and Rules

Learn more about printing and publishing:

Printing and Publishing Basics Guide

This guide explains Idaho sales and use tax for commercial printers. Commercial printers are retailers who produce printed materials that they’ll sell. This guide refers to commercial printers and publishers as “printers.”

As a printer, you must have a valid seller’s permit, collect sales tax, file a sales tax return and forward the tax to the Tax Commission. See our Retailers guide for information about getting an Idaho seller’s permit, doing business in Idaho and much more.

Income tax note: For multistate income tax apportionment, see Income Tax Rule 580.01.f.

Facility Rental – Recreation and Admissions

You can determine whether you should charge sales tax to someone renting all or part of your facility by asking these questions:

  1. Will the renter charge admission?
    Don’t collect tax from someone renting your facility if they’ll charge admission to an event they’ll hold there. They must give you a completed pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate, to document this.
  2. If the renter won’t charge admission, is the use recreational?
    If the use is recreational, you must charge sales tax, even if your facility isn’t a “recreational” facility. Your records must document that the use wasn’t recreational.

If you rent your facility to someone who’ll put it to both taxable and nontaxable uses, you must separately state the charge for the nontaxable use for it to be exempt (not taxable) from sales tax. Otherwise, the entire cost is taxable.

NOTE: Special rules apply to hotel and motel operators. For more information, see our Hotels, Motels and Short-Term Rentals guide.

Recreation and Admissions Events

Tournaments and events

You must collect sales tax on fees you charge participants to enter a tournament or to participate in an organized event. You also must pay sales or use tax on any tangible personal property used or consumed during the event. This includes trophies or prizes handed out at the end of the event.

Entry fees (professional athletes or events)

Fees that professional athletes pay to participate in sanctioned events or tournaments aren’t taxable. The professional athlete’s participation isn’t for recreation; it’s as an occupation.

Example: Professional golf tournaments

Mixed participants (professional and amateur)

You might have an event that has both professional and amateur athlete participation. Organizers normally segregate these events into different classifications for the athletes.

  • Entry fees for the professional classifications aren’t taxable.
  • Entry fees for the amateur classifications are taxable.

Examples of events for mixed participants:

  • Pro-Am golf tournaments

Recreation and Admissions Equipment

You must pay sales tax on any equipment and supplies you buy to run your facility.

Examples of recreation providers:

  • Health clubs
  • Racquetball clubs
  • Bowling alleys
  • Pool halls
  • Carnivals
  • Carnival-type rides
  • Outfitters
  • Batting cages
  • Skating rinks
  • Golf courses
  • Miniature golf courses

Items you rent to customers

The law treats equipment (e.g., skates, golf carts, bowling shoes) that you rent to customers for an additional charge as items you’re buying for resale. You can buy these items without paying sales or use tax if you give your supplier a completed pdf Form ST-101, Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate.

Recreation and Admissions Laws and Rules

Learn more about Recreation and Admissions:

  • Sale (Idaho Code section 63-3612 – (2)(e) and (f))
  • Mixed Transactions (Sales Tax Rule 011)
  • Admissions Defined (Sales Tax Rule 030)
  • Food, Meals, Or Drinks (Sales Tax Rule 041)
  • Outfitters, Guides, And Like Operations (Sales Tax Rule 047)
  • Sales To And Purchases By Nonprofit Organizations (Sales Tax Rule 085)
  • Sales And Purchases By Religious Organizations (Sales Tax Rule 086)
  • Lease Or Rental Of Motion Picture Television Film (Sales Tax Rule 087)
  • Exemptions On Purchases By Political Subdivisions, Sales By The State Of Idaho, Its Departments, Institutions, And All Other Political Subdivisions (Sales Tax Rule 094)
  • Use Of A Recreational Facility, Instructional Fees, And Pari-Mutuel Betting (Sales Tax Rule 129)

Recreation and Admissions Basics Guide

Do you charge admission to a place or event? Do you charge for using, or privilege of using, recreational equipment, meeting rooms or facilities? This guide can help you understand sales tax requirements for your business as they relate to recreation and admissions in Idaho.

Recreation

Recreation is defined* as the “refreshment in body or mind, as after work, by some form of play, amusement or relaxation or any form of play, amusement, or relaxation used for this purpose such as games, sports, or hobbies.”

Consider the following when determining the taxability of a recreational activity:

Taxable

  • Charges for the use of a facility for recreational purposes
    • Example: Charges to use a swimming pool
  • Charges to participate in a recreational program or event
    • Example: Charges to participate in sports leagues

Not Taxable

  • Separately stated charges for instruction
    • Example: Instructional fees for jazzercise, aerobics, dance, and swimming aren’t taxable when they’re separately stated from the facility and participation fee. 

NOTE: Monitoring activities, such as a lifeguard at a swimming pool, aren’t considered instruction.

* Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition, Ed. Michael Agnes, New York: Macmillan USA, 1999.

Taxable Sales – Recreation and Admissions

Taxable sales include:

  • Fees paid to gain admission to a place or event.
  • Fees paid to use, or to have the privilege of using, tangible personal property or facilities for recreation. Tangible personal property is property that you can feel or touch and that isn’t “real property” (e.g., real estate).

Fees paid to participate in recreational activities

Fees paid to participate in recreation activities are generally taxable.

Admission charges

Admissions charges are generally taxable.

Charging a whole-dollar amount

You must separately state the tax on the receipt, invoice or ticket you give to your customer, even if you want to charge a whole-dollar amount for the price of admission, plus tax.

“Suggested” donations

  • If you suggest a price for an admission, even if you call it a donation, you must collect sales tax.
  • If you don’t set or suggest a price (or donation) and admission is allowed, don’t collect sales tax.

Admissions that nonprofit groups charge

You don’t need to collect sales tax on sale of admissions if you’re an organization conducting an exempt function as defined in section 527 or nonprofit organization registered as a 501(c)(3) with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and all of these are true:

  • The event is not predominantly recreational or commercial.
  • Any included entertainment value is minimal when compared to the price for attendance.
  • Your nonprofit organization paid sales or use tax on taxable property or services used during the event.

See Nonprofit and Religious Groups for additional information.

Fees for instruction

Instruction fees for swimming, jazzercise, dance, yoga, karate or tennis lessons aren’t taxable if you separately state the instruction fees from the facility fee.

The whole fee is taxable if you don’t separately state the instruction fees from the facility fee on a sales receipt.

Renting Out Tangible Personal Property

For tax purposes, rental of tangible personal property is considered a sale. There are two types of rentals:

  • Bare equipment rentals. These are taxable.
  • Fully operated equipment rentals. These aren’t taxable.

Bare equipment rentals

A bare equipment rental is when the owner rents out only the property, and the person who rents that property will operate it. The owner charges tax on:

  • The rental charge, no matter how it’s determined (e.g., by the hour, by the week, by mileage)
  • Any charges related to using the property

    Examples:

    • Tire wear
    • Blade sharpening
    • Mandatory damage waiver
    • Mandatory warranty
    • Supplies provided with the rental
    • Cleaning charges agreed to as part of the rental
    • Labor charges to prepare the equipment for the customer’s specifications
    • Environmental fees, except those a federal government agency imposes
    • Fuel sold to the customer when motor vehicle tax is not paid on the fuel (e.g., dyed diesel)
    • Damage charges when the customer returns the property

Owners sometimes add personal property tax to the rental or lease fee. It’s taxable unless all of the following apply:

  • The owner separately stated the property tax in the charge to the lessee.
  • The lease agreement is for an initial period of one year or more.
  • The amount the owner charged isn’t more than the property tax the lessor pays.

Bare rental with service fee

Some rentals include both a bare rental charge and a nontaxable service fee. In these rentals, tax is due on the personal property. The services might not be taxable if they’re a significant portion of the cost of the rental contract and are separately stated. Nontaxable services must be personal or professional, and not related to creating or altering the property rented.

Examples

  • Renting out a garbage container and providing a service to empty the container
  • Renting out portable toilets and providing a service to clean the units

In these situations, the customer uses the property between servicing, so it’s a bare rental of the property. Owners shouldn’t charge tax on service charges if they’re separately stated on the invoice.

Collecting tax

You’re a retailer if you make bare rentals. You must collect tax unless your customer qualifies for an exemption and provides a completed pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate. Read more about requirements in our Retailers guide.

Fully operated equipment rentals

With fully operated equipment rentals, the owner of the property rents the equipment out and supplies someone to operate it throughout the rental period. This is a service and isn’t taxable.

Examples

  • A crane and operator to lift wood into place
  • A calibrator and technician to perform the calibration

Leasing Out Tangible Personal Property

Leases of tangible personal property are considered taxable sales. The person leasing out the property (lessor) is a retailer. The lessor must collect tax unless the customer qualifies for an exemption and provides a completed pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate. Lessees of qualifying interstate commerce vehicles can rent tax exempt if they provide a completed pdf Form ST-104IC – Sales Tax Exemption Certificate – Interstate Commerce Vehicles.

If lessors don’t charge sales tax when they rent out or lease out property used in Idaho, the customer owes use tax unless an exemption applies. See “Use Tax – How to report, file and pay use tax.”

Lessors can buy property exempt for resale if they’ll lease it out. They must give the vendor a completed Form ST-101.

There are three types of leases of tangible personal property.

Basic Lease

The customer returns the property to the lessor at the end of the lease term.

The lessor charges sales tax on each lease payment.

Lease with Option to Buy

The customer has the option of buying the property during the lease term or at the end of the lease term at fair market value.

The lessor charges sales tax on each lease payment and on the price the customer pays when buying the property.

Lease-Purchase

The customer makes regular payments during the lease term. At the end of the term, title to the property passes to the customer for $0 or an amount that’s less than fair market value.

The customer owns the property at the end of the lease term, so this is a sale and a financing arrangement. Collect sales tax at the beginning of the lease term on all the payments the customer will make during the lease term. At the end of the lease term, collect sales tax on any additional amount you charge then for the purchase of the property.

Out-of-state companies leasing out property in Idaho

Out-of-state companies that lease out property to others in Idaho must follow all these requirements:

Idaho companies that lease out property in another state

Lessors collect Idaho tax on the first month’s lease payment for property used outside Idaho if the customer receives the property in Idaho.

  • No Idaho tax: The lessor delivers the property to the customer outside of Idaho and the customer doesn’t use it in Idaho during the lease term.
  • Idaho tax on the first lease payment only: The lessor delivers the property to the customer in Idaho and the customer uses it outside the state for the remainder of the lease term.

Note: When lessors don’t collect and forward Idaho tax, they must keep records documenting the point of delivery and place of use during the lease term.