Possession and Delivery of Exemption Certificates

(Rescinded May 30, 2003)
AUTHORITY: section 144.270, RSMo 1994. S.T. regulation 210-4 was last filed Dec. 31, 1975, effective Jan. 10, 1976. Refiled March 30,
1976. Amended: Filed Aug. 13, 1980, effective Jan. 1, 1981. Rescinded:
Filed Nov. 15, 2002, effective May 30, 2003.
Overland Steel, Inc. v. Director of Revenue, 647 SW2d 535
(Mo. banc 1983). There were two issues in this case. The first was whether a taxpayer could claim a sales tax exemption for certain steel if sold, on the grounds that the purchasers were to use it in pollution control or plant expansion projects. The second was whether or not the transfer of steel to certain customers in Kansas was a sale subject to sales tax under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. With respect to the first issue, the court found that the taxpayer had the burden of establishing that it was exempt from sales tax, and its failure to produce sales tax exemption certificates, coupled with the dearth of testimony concerning the exempt activities of taxpayer, fails to meet that burden. With respect to the second issue, the court found that when property is purchased subject to a resale certificate, the purchaser becomes liable for sales tax if the property is not resold. In this case the court found that because the taxpayer used the steel in question in its capacity as a contractor there was no resale. Therefore, the taxable event was the taxpayer’s original purchase of the steel in Missouri. It was wholly irrelevant that the construction contract pursuant to which the steel was used was performed in Kansas.
There was no violation of the Commerce Clause, and therefore, taxpayer was liable for tax.