| (3) If an exemption certificate is fully completed
with all information required by this section and bears an original
seal of a registered engineer or is attached to a signed statement
with an original signature from the owner of the business and a person
with an engineering degree from an accredited engineering college,
as required by subsection (g) of this section, the utility company
is not required to make any additional inquiry before honoring the
exemption request.
(4) The exemption is valid only as long as the person
continues to use natural gas and electricity predominantly for exempt
purposes. If the use of the natural gas or electricity changes so
that the predominant use becomes taxable, it is the person's responsibility
to notify the utility company in writing that the exemption is no
longer valid.
(5) A person who uses natural gas or electricity solely
in a single-family residence is not required to furnish an exemption
certificate.
(6) A person whose use of natural gas and electricity
is in multifamily apartment complexes, housing complexes, nursing
homes, or other residential buildings may be required to issue an
exemption certificate if one is necessary for the utility company
to distinguish exempt residential use from taxable use.
(7) A multifamily residential property may issue a
blanket exemption certificate for vacant apartments that will be occupied
as residences and billed under the property's corporate name or the
name of the property owner, if at least one unit in the property is
occupied for residential use.
(8) A person who claims an exemption for natural gas
or electricity used for agricultural or timber operations must provide
an exemption certificate to its utility provider that contains the
person's Texas Agriculture and Timber Registration Number issued by
the comptroller and the expiration date.
(9) A qualifying owner, qualifying operator, or qualifying
occupant of a qualifying data center or a qualifying large data center
project who claims an exemption for natural gas or electricity used
for a qualifying data center or used for a qualifying large data center
must provide an exemption certificate that contains the Qualifying
Data Center or Qualifying Large Data Center Project Registration Number
and the Qualifying Owner, Qualifying Operator, or Qualifying Occupant
Registration Number issued by the comptroller to its utility provider.
(i) Transportation of a material extracted from the
earth.
(1) Sales or use tax is not due on natural gas or electricity
used to transport a material or its components extracted from the
earth. Examples of materials or components extracted from the earth
would be oil, natural gas, coal or coal slurry, crushed stone, sand
and gravel, and water.
(2) Sales or use tax is due on natural gas or electricity
used to transport products that have been manufactured from a material
extracted from the earth. Products which were manufactured from a
material extracted from the earth include substances which do not
exist in nature or are not components of crude oil, natural gas, coal,
or other minerals extracted from the earth.
(3) For purposes of this section, a material is not
considered to be manufactured when an additive is combined with the
material for ancillary reasons, for example, when odorant is added
to natural gas.
(j) Pipeline safety fees. Sales or use tax is not due
on any surcharge for pipeline safety fees added to the existing rates
of each investor-owned and municipally owned natural gas distribution
company and each natural gas master meter operator pursuant to Texas
Utilities Code, §121.211 (Pipeline Safety and Regulatory Fees).
(k) Natural gas and electricity purchased by lessors
of nonresidential real property.
(1) A lessor of nonresidential real property that purchases
natural gas or electricity directly from a utility provider is the
consumer of the natural gas or electricity, and is making a taxable
use of that natural gas or electricity, unless the lessor is otherwise
exempt from sales and use tax. See §3.322 of this title (relating
to Exempt Organizations). A utility provider may not make a tax-exempt
sale for resale to the lessor of the nonresidential real property.
(2) A lessor of nonresidential real property may not
claim an exemption for the purchase of the natural gas or electricity
based on a lessee's exempt status or a lessee's use of the natural
gas or electricity.
|
| Source Note: The provisions of this §3.295 adopted to be effective January 1, 1976; amended to be effective October 25, 1978, 3 TexReg 3571; amended to be effective November 26, 1984, 9 TexReg 5836; amended to be effective February 9, 1987, 12 TexReg 311; amended to be effective February 1, 1988, 13 TexReg 348; amended to be effective January 1, 1990, 14 TexReg 6675; amended to be effective June 25, 1991, 16 TexReg 3195; amended to be effective March 7, 1996, 21 TexReg 1583; amended to be effective September 20, 2000, 25 TexReg 9220; amended to be effective April 13, 2005, 30 TexReg 2082; amended to be effective March 7, 2017, 42 TexReg 1034 |
