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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Sales and Use Tax Annotations
A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P R S T U V W X
A
100.0000 Advertising Agencies, Commercial Artists and Designers—Regulation 1540
Annotation 100.0032.700
(a) In General
100.0032.700 Lease and Sublease of Intermediate Products. An advertising agency leases photographs and illustrations from photographers for use as manufacturing aids to produce finished art. The advertising agency's use of a title passage clause in its contracts with clients is inappropriate when it uses the leased photographs in preparing property it sells to its clients because, by leasing the photographs and illustrations from photographers, the advertising agency does not have title to the photograph to pass to client.
If the advertising agency acts as an agent to its client under Regulation 1540(a)(2)(A), it may lease the photographs and illustrations from the photographer on behalf of the clients. In that case, the agency should pay use tax to the lessor on behalf of the client. The agency's reimbursement for the lease should be listed and priced separately from the agency's charge for the final product.
An advertising agency who wishes not to act as an agent on behalf of the client but rather to sublease the property to the client may timely pay use tax to the photographer (lessor) and, prior to making any use of the property, lease the property to the client in substantially the same form as acquired. If it does so, its sublease to the client is not taxable. The advertising agency may alternatively issue a resale certificate to the lessor and, prior to making any use of the property, sublease the property to the client, collecting use tax from the client on that sublease. In the latter event, the advertising agency's sublease of the property is subject to use tax regardless that the agency's sale of the final product to the client is exempt from tax (i.e., sales in interstate commerce) or is a nontaxable sale for resale. When the advertising agency acts as the seller, the following clause between the agency and its clients would be acceptable evidence that the property was subleased to the client prior to use by the advertising agency:
"It is expressly understood that, when the agency leases from lessors intermediate products, such as photographs and illustrations, the agency subleases such property to you prior to any use by the agency whether or not the agency transfers possession of the property to you. Any use of the leased property by the agency is on your behalf." 7/17/97.