Ill. Admin. Code tit. 86, § 270.115
a) Definitions
When used in this Part, "Municipality" includes all territory located within the municipality, and refers to all cities, villages or incorporated towns, including an incorporated town that has superseded a civil township.
When used in this Part, "Selling Activities" refers to those activities that comprise "an occupation, the business of which is to sell tangible personal property at retail". "Selling Activities" includes "the composite of many activities extending from the preparation for, and the obtaining of, orders for goods to the final consummation of the sale by the passing of title and payment of the purchase price". Ex-Cell-O Corp. v. McKibbin, 383 Ill. 316, 321 (1943).
b) Retailer's Selling Activities Determine Taxing Jurisdiction
c) Application of Composite of Selling Activities Test to Retailers Conducting Selling Activities in Multiple Taxing Jurisdictions. Every retailer maintaining a place of business in this State shall determine the taxing jurisdictions in which it is engaged in the business of selling with respect to each of its sales by applying the standards set forth in this subsection (c), except when a retailer is engaged in particular selling activities identified by a statute that specifies the taxing jurisdiction where retailers engaged in those activities shall remit retailers' occupation tax. These retailers shall remit retailers' occupation tax as directed by statute, notwithstanding anything in this Part to the contrary.
1) Primary Selling Activities. Without attempting to anticipate every kind of fact situation that may arise, taxpayers that divide selling activities among personnel located in multiple jurisdictions shall consider the following selling activities to determine where they are engaged in the business of selling with respect to each sale. A retailer is engaged in the business of selling in only one location for each sale, but may be engaged in the business of selling in different locations for different sales:
3) Application of Primary Selling Activities to Common Selling Operations. Retailers engaged in selling operations with a single location where the primary selling activities predominate constitute the vast majority of retailers in the State. Subsections (c)(3)(A) through (c)(3)(C) apply the primary selling activities to certain common selling operations and identify the location where the Department will presume the seller is engaged in the business of selling with respect to each sale.
B) Sale through Vending Machines. A retailer is engaged in the business of selling food, beverages or other tangible personal property through a vending machine at the location where the vending machine is located when the sale is made if:
A) Location where marketing and solicitation occur;
7) EXAMPLE: Company X is a manufacturer and retailer of pet supplies headquartered in Chicago. Company X has a team of sales personnel who work from their own homes located throughout Illinois. Company X makes sales to customers in Illinois through a variety of channels including internet sales, telephone sales, pet expositions, and brick and mortar stores. Many of its sales to Illinois customers are through its remote sales team who make sales over the phone and receive purchase orders over the phone. Team members then input the order and customer payment information received from the customer on the phone into the company's computer system. Payment information is then uploaded to a third-party payment processor in Kankakee, Illinois and processed. Invoices are sent to the customer from Company X's headquarters in Chicago. Sales are fulfilled from inventory located at the company's fulfillment center in Champaign, Illinois. A team member working remotely from his home in Peoria, Illinois makes a sale over the phone to a customer who had seen the item advertised in a magazine, and the item is shipped to the customer's home in Kankakee, Illinois.
Applying the primary selling activities listed in (c)(1), Peoria is the site with regard to (A) and (B); Kankakee or Chicago is the site with regard to (C); Champaign is the site with regard to (D); and Chicago is the site with regard to (E). Peoria and Chicago are both the site of two primary selling activities. Because no site is the location of three primary selling activities, the secondary selling activities listed in (c)(4) must be considered.
Applying the secondary selling activities in (c)(4), Peoria is the site with regard to (A) and (D); Chicago is the site with regard to (B) and (C); Kankakee is the site with regard to (E); and, because in this sale the customer viewed the items in a magazine and ordered over the phone, (F) is not applicable. Again, Peoria and Chicago are both the site of two secondary selling activities.
Under subsection (c)(5), because no site was the location of three primary selling activities under (c)(1), the retailer is engaged in the business of selling either in Champaign, where its inventory is located under subsection (c)(1)(D), or in Chicago, where its headquarters is located under subsection (c)(1)(E), whichever jurisdiction is the location where more selling activities occur, considering both primary and secondary selling activities. Because Champaign is the site of only one selling activity and Chicago is the site of four, this sale would be sourced to Chicago.
d) Presumptions Applying to Certain Selling Operations
3) Sales over the Internet. Except as provided in subsections (e), (f), and (g) of this Section, when a customer places an order for the purchase of tangible personal property through a consumer-based retailer website available without limitation on the world wide web and the retailer ships the property to the customer in this State, the Department will presume that the retailer's predominant selling activities take place outside of this State. Therefore, such a sale will be subject to the Illinois Use Tax Act through December 31, 2024, and the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act beginning January 1, 2025, as provided in subsection (h) below, unless there is clear and convincing evidence the retailer's predominant and most important selling activities take place in this State. Clear and convincing evidence sufficient to overcome the presumption provided for in this subsection (d)(3) includes, but is not limited to, the following circumstances:
4) Leases with an Option to Purchase. A lease with a dollar or other nominal option to purchase is considered to be a conditional sale subject to retailers' occupation tax. (See 86 Ill. Adm. Code 130.2010(a)). On and after July 23, 2015, a retailer selling tangible personal property to a nominal lessee or bailee pursuant to a lease with a dollar or other nominal option to purchase is engaged in the business of selling at the location where the property is first delivered to the lessee or bailee for its intended use. [35 ILCS 120/2-12(5)]. This provision applies to all retailers, including, on and after January 1, 2021, remote retailers and retailers making sales over a marketplace that meets either of the tax remittance thresholds established at 86 Ill. Adm. Code 131.135 (a). The retailer must maintain books and records that document the physical location to which the property is first delivered to the lessee or bailee for its intended use. An executed contract between the retailer and lessee that clearly specifies the location of the property creates a rebuttable presumption that such location is where the property is first delivered to the lessee for its intended use. The Department may rebut this presumption with clear and convincing evidence that such location is not the location where the property is first delivered to the lessee for its intended use. Absent such a contract, the lessee must provide the retailer with a certification at the time of sale that declares the location where the product is first delivered for its intended use. The retailer must maintain this certification in its books and records and may presume this certification is valid.
Example: A retailer sells equipment to a nominal lessee or bailee pursuant to a lease with a dollar option to purchase. The equipment is first delivered to the lessee's Springfield, Illinois warehouse to be inspected. The property is then delivered to the lessee's headquarters in Chicago, Illinois to be used in the lessee's business. For purposes of this sale, the retailer is engaged in the business of selling in Chicago, Illinois, since that is the location where the property is first delivered for its intended use.
5) Sales of Coal or Other Minerals. A retail sale by a producer of coal or other mineral mined in Illinois is a sale at retail in the jurisdiction where the coal or other mineral mined in Illinois is extracted from the earth. For purposes of this subsection (d)(5), "extracted from the earth" means the location at which the coal or other mineral is extracted from the mouth of the mine. On and after January 1, 2021, this provision applies to retailers, including marketplace sellers and marketplace facilitators.
6) Lease Transactions. Beginning January 1, 2025, the lease of tangible personal property that is subject to the tax on leases is sourced as follows:
g) Sales made by marketplace facilitators to Illinois purchasers not on behalf of marketplace sellers. When a marketplace facilitator makes a sale of its own to Illinois purchasers, or the marketplace seller of the tangible personal property is not identified (see 86 Ill. Adm. Code 131.130(b)), it may incur either destination sourcing or sourcing determined under the provisions of subsection (c) of this Section ("origin sourcing").
i) The requirements of this Section also apply to the following Retailers' Occupation Taxes:
(Source: Amended at 49 Ill. Reg. 8655, effective June 13, 2025)