MCL 205.54y — Industrial processing; exemption; limitation

(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person subject to the tax under this act may exclude from the gross proceeds used for the computation of the tax the sale of tangible personal property to the following after March 30, 1995 but before March 31, 1999:
(a) An industrial processor for use or consumption in industrial processing. Property used or consumed in industrial processing does not include tangible personal property permanently affixed and becoming a structural part of real estate; office furniture, office supplies, and administrative office equipment; or vehicles licensed and titled for use on public highways other than a specially designed vehicle, together with parts, used to mix and agitate materials added at a plant or job site in the concrete manufacturing process. Industrial processing does not include receipt and storage of raw materials purchased or extracted by the user or consumer, or the preparation of food and beverages by a retailer for retail sale. As used in this subdivision, "industrial processor" means a person who transforms, alters, or modifies tangible personal property by changing the form, composition, or character of the property for ultimate sale at retail or sale to another industrial processor to be further processed for ultimate sale at retail. Sales to a person performing a service who does not act as an industrial processor while performing the service may not be excluded under this subdivision, except as provided in subdivision (b).
(b) A person, whether or not the person is an industrial processor, if the property is a computer used in operating industrial processing equipment; equipment used in a computer assisted manufacturing system; equipment used in a computer assisted design or engineering system integral to an industrial process; a subunit or electronic assembly comprising a component in a computer integrated industrial processing system; or computer equipment used in connection with the computer assisted production, storage, and transmission of data if the equipment would have been exempt had the data transfer been made using tapes, disks, CD-ROMs, or similar media by a company whose business includes publishing doctoral dissertations and information archiving, and that sells the majority of the company's products to nonprofit organizations exempt under section 4q.
(2) The property under subsection (1) is exempt only to the extent that the property is used for the exempt purposes stated in this section. The exemption is limited to the percentage of exempt use to total use determined by a reasonable formula or method approved by the department.