Search Category: Sales Tax

Laws and Rules for Logging

Learn more about loggers:

Learn more about Idaho tax statutes 

Learn more about our Rules 

Businesses That Qualify for Logging Exemption

Businesses that qualify for the exemption

To be eligible for this exemption:

  • Your business must engage in a qualifying logging activity. This includes:
    • Cutting forest trees
    • Thinning forest trees
    • Skidding, decking, and loading forest trees
  • The trees you harvest must be intended for sale by whoever owns them.
  • You must report your business’ profit or loss on an income tax return.

Note: Logging doesn’t have to be your main business to qualify for the exemption.

Businesses that don’t qualify for the exemption

Operations that aren’t eligible for the exemption include:

  • Harvesting forest trees for your own use
  • Harvesting forest trees for use by your business
  • Harvesting firewood for your own use

Purchases that Qualify for Logging Exemption

Purchase Requirements

An item qualifies for the exemption, if it meets all of the following requirements:

  • Primarily used in the logging process.
    See Idaho Code section 63-3607A.
  • Necessary or essential – you can’t harvest trees without it.
  • Directly used in or consumed during logging – after the beginning and before the end of the process:
    • The logging process begins when you first handle forest trees at the site of the activity.
    • The process ends when the logs are placed on transportation vehicles at the loading site, ready to be shipped.
  • Tangible personal property – must not become real property.
  • Allowable by law – must not be specifically excluded from the logging exemption by law or rule.

Exempt Purchases — Logging

Qualifying loggers can buy the following items exempt:

Equipment used for harvesting forest trees for resale

Examples:

  • Chain saws and chain saw parts and supplies – including chains, saw parts, oil mix, bar oil, and bar covers
  • Skidders, tree harvesters, feller bunchers, log processors, unlicensed log loaders and jammers, and parts for qualifying equipment

Supplies used in harvesting forest trees

  • Fuel, oil, and antifreeze for qualifying equipment
  • Chokers, skidder cable, and yarders
  • Radio Signal System (Talkie Tooters)
  • Tree marking paint

Taxable items – Logging

Even if you qualify for the logging exemption, some items are still taxable. The following commonly used items are taxable to loggers:

Safety equipment and supplies, regardless of use

Examples

  • Fire suppression equipment, including fire trucks and extinguishers
  • Hard hats, helmets, gloves, shoulder pads, ear plugs, calk boots, safety chaps

Equipment and supplies used for slash disposal or brush piling and clearing

Examples

  • Brush rakes and clearing machines, including tractors and tractor parts and supplies
  • Fuel used in slash disposal equipment

Equipment and supplies used in reforestation activities

Equipment and materials used for road construction

Examples

  • Dozers, road graders, loaders, excavators – including parts and supplies
  • Fuel used in road construction equipment
  • Materials used to build culverts, bridges, gates, fences, guardrails, or anything else that becomes part of real property. This includes fill materials.
  • Dust suppression products
  • Explosives

Recreational vehicles and aircraft, regardless of use

Examples

  • Snowmobiles, ATVs, SOHVs
  • Helicopters, airplanes – including any parts and supplies
  • Fuel used off-road if tax wasn’t paid

Licensed motor vehicles and trailers

Except trucks and trailers licensed under the International Registration Plan (IRP) or similar pro rata plan and part of a fleet used at least 10% of the time outside Idaho

Examples

  • Log trucks and trailers – including parts and supplies
  • Log loaders and jammers – if licensed
  • Tie downs and slings

Items and supplies for personal use

Examples

  • Shirts, pants, suspenders, boots

Office, maintenance, or janitorial equipment and supplies

Marketing, promotional, sales, or transportation equipment and supplies

Equipment and supplies to analyze or model financial results

Motor vehicles

Motor vehicles that are for use on public roads are taxable.

Change Use of Exempt Item – Logging

If you change the primary use of an item

If you buy an item exempt to use in a logging activity, it becomes taxable if you stop using it in a logging activity. You must then pay tax on the fair market value of the item.

Note: The opposite isn’t true. If you pay tax on an item because you use it in a non-logging activity, you can’t claim a tax credit if you begin to use it in a logging activity.

Buyer’s Responsibility for Logging Exemption

Buyer’s responsibility when making exempt purchases

You must keep records of all your purchases, and show whether you paid tax on them.

  • Records must show what you bought, when you bought it, how much you paid for the goods, and how much tax you paid.
  • Your accounting records must include the standard books and records maintained in a business.
  • Keep all your records for at least four years. (You may need to keep them for seven years if you don’t file sales tax returns).

Use tax

When you buy, use, or store taxable goods in Idaho, but didn’t pay sales tax when you bought them, you owe use tax.

You may owe use tax if:

  • You buy goods from an internet retailer that doesn’t collect tax
  • You buy a taxable item from a seller that didn’t charge sales tax because the seller has your exemption certificate on file
  • You buy an item in a state that doesn’t have sales tax, then bring the item to Idaho
  • You change how you use an exempt item (See If you change the primary use of an item.)
  • You take lumber from your resale inventory and use it in your business.

Learn more about use tax.

Certificates for Logging Exemption

To buy an item exempt from sales tax, give the seller a completed exemption certificate.

ST-101, Idaho Resale or Exemption Certificate

pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate

Fill in the form:

  1. Write the name and address of both the seller and your business at the top.
  2. In section 2 “Producer Exemptions,” check the box for the producer exemption(s) you qualify for.
  3. List any products you produce on the line at the bottom of section 2.
  4. Under “Buyer,” at the bottom of the page, sign the form. Fill in the rest of the fields (name, title, EIN or driver’s license information, and date).
  5. The seller should keep the form and not charge you tax on exempt items in the future.

Optional short version of ST-101

  • Retailers can print or stamp a short version of the ST-101 on sales invoices, or
  • Buyers can print the short version on their purchase orders.
  • This shorter version must be completed for each sale. The wording must be:

I certify that the property I’ve purchased will be used by me directly and primarily in the process of producing tangible personal property by mining, manufacturing, processing, fabricating, logging, or farming, or as a repair part for equipment used primarily as described above. This tax exemption qualifies if this statement is signed by the buyer and the name, address, and nature of the buyer’s business are shown on the invoice. Any person who signs this certification with the intention of evading payment of tax is guilty of a misdemeanor.
[Indicate spaces for NATURE OF BUSINESS and SIGNATURE OF BUYER]

Retailers should keep a copy of the sales invoice showing the stamped or printed exemption.

Multijurisdictional

You can use the Uniform Sales and Use Tax Certificate – Multijurisdiction when you buy from out-of-state businesses that are registered Idaho retailers instead of Form ST-101 if:

  • You’re a multi-state taxpayer, and
  • You’ll resell the goods you buy

Instructions:

  1. Write the name and address of both the seller and your business at the top.
  2. Check the box for “Retailer” if you sell to end users or “Wholesaler” if you sell to buyers who’ll resell the goods.
  3. Write your Idaho seller’s permit number in the ID section.
  4. Sign and fill in the bottom of the form.
  5. The seller should keep the form and not charge you tax in the future.

Note: Everything you buy using the Multijurisdiction exemption certificate is exempt because you can use it only for goods you’ll resell.

Remember: Even if you buy from a seller that has your exemption certificate, not everything is exempt.

  • Some items are always taxable.
  • Some items are taxable if they’re not used in qualifying activities.

Sales by or to Loggers

Selling the timber you harvest

Wholesalers

If you only sell goods to a customer who will resell them, you may be a wholesaler. Read more in our Wholesalers guide.

Retailers

If you sell to a final consumer, you might be a retailer. Read more in our Retailers guide.

Examples of sales you must collect tax on if you’re a retailer:

  • Selling logs to a contractor or employee
  • Selling logs to buyers who don’t resell them
  • Selling firewood for bonfires or campfires
  • Selling office equipment, used logging equipment, or promotional items to buyers who don’t resell them

Don’t charge tax if the goods you’re selling are:

  • Sold for resale, and the buyer gave you a completed pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate), or
  • Never taxed in Idaho
    Example: Firewood burned to provide heat to a building or for domestic home use isn’t taxable in Idaho. You might not need an Idaho seller’s permit if you only sell firewood for these purposes.

Vendors that sell to loggers

  • If you sell to loggers, don’t charge sales tax on exempt items if the buyer gives you a completed exemption certificate (e.g., ST-101).
  • If you have a completed certificate on file, don’t collect sales tax on exempt sales to the logger in the future.

Note: Not everything is exempt for loggers. You must charge tax on items that aren’t exempt from sales tax. Read more on making sales in our Retailers guide.

Introduction to Medical Products Exemption

This guide explains Idaho sales and use tax laws for buying and selling medical supplies and prescriptions. It describes who can buy which kinds of medical supplies and prescriptions without tax.

Buyers that qualify for the exemption

Medical equipment and supplies listed in Idaho Code section  63-3622N are exempt from sales tax when bought by:

  • A practitioner who’ll administer or distribute the items to patients. Learn who’s a “practitioner.”
  • A patient (or someone for a patient) with a practitioner’s prescription or work order.
  • An entity that can buy everything exempt.
  • A for-profit hospital or other health-care provider that will administer to patients under a practitioner’s prescription or work order.

Items that can qualify for the exemption

  • Drugs
  • Hypodermic syringes, insulin, insulin syringes
  • Artificial eyes, eyeglasses, eyeglass component parts, contact lenses
  • Hearing aids, hearing aid parts and accessories
  • Drugs and supplies used in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis
  • Braces and other orthopedic appliances
  • Dental prostheses and other orthodontic appliances, including fillings
  • Catheters, urinary accessories, colostomy supplies
  • Prosthetic devices
  • Equipment, devices, or chemical reagents used to test or monitor blood or urine of a diabetic
  • Durable medical equipment (see description in Definitions)

This list isn’t all-inclusive. See Idaho Code section  63-3622N for a full list of items that can qualify for the exemption.

Exempt Buyers for Medical Products Exemption

Practitioner

A practitioner who’ll administer or distribute medical supplies and drugs under a work order or prescription can buy them exempt.

Seller’s responsibility

Keep on file a completed pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate, showing the reason for the exemption. Don’t charge tax on future exempt purchases.

Patients

Patients of hospitals and of qualifying practitioners can buy medical supplies and drugs exempt with a prescription or work order.

Seller’s responsibility

Keep on file the prescription or work order from a practitioner.

Exempt entities

Certain entities, including nonprofit hospitals, can buy all goods exempt from sales tax. This exemption includes all medical products, no matter who administers or distributes them or how they are used. In addition to nonprofit hospitals, the exempt health care entities are:

  • Nonprofit hospitals
  • Health facilities operated by an Idaho state agency or by a political subdivision of the state
  • American Red Cross
  • U.S. federal government
  • Nonprofit children’s free dental-service clinics
  • Emergency medical service agencies
  • Centers for independent living
  • Qualifying senior citizen centers
  • Volunteer fire departments
  • Health-related entities
    • American Cancer Society
    • American Diabetes Association
    • American Heart Association
    • Arc, Inc., The
    • Arthritis Foundation
    • Camp Rainbow Gold
    • Children’s Home Society of Idaho
    • Easter Seals
    • Family Services Alliance of Southeast Idaho
    • Idaho Association of Free and Charitable Clinics and its member clinics
    • Idaho Community Action Agency
    • Idaho Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
    • Idaho Diabetes Youth Programs
    • Idaho Epilepsy League
    • Idaho Lung Association
    • Idaho Primary Care Association and its community health centers
    • Idaho Ronald McDonald House
    • Idaho Women’s and Children’s Alliance
    • March of Dimes
    • Mental Health Association
    • Muscular Dystrophy Foundation
    • National Multiple Sclerosis Society
    • Rocky Mountain Kidney Association
    • Special Olympics Idaho
    • United Cerebral Palsy

Seller’s responsibility

Keep on file a completed pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate, showing the reason for the exemption. Don’t charge tax on future exempt purchases.

Certain other health care providers

Health care providers other than nonprofit hospitals and other exempt entities can buy qualifying medical supplies and prescriptions if one of the following applies:

  • They are for a patient with a prescription or work order from a practitioner licensed to prescribe such items.
  • They will administer or distribute the items under the work order or a prescription of a practitioner.

These providers include:

  • For-profit hospitals
  • Clinics
  • Nursing homes
  • Drug and alcohol rehabilitation hospitals
  • Dentists

Seller’s responsibility

Keep on file a completed pdf Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate, showing the reason for the exemption. Don’t charge tax on future exempt purchases.