Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 64H, § 6 – Exemptions

The following sales and the gross receipts therefrom shall be exempt from the tax imposed by this chapter:—

(a) Sales which the commonwealth is prohibited from taxing under the constitution or laws of the United States.
(b) Sales of tangible personal property in transit or stored at points of entry intended for export or import or which the vendor is obligated under the terms of any agreement to deliver (1) to a purchaser outside the commonwealth or to a designee outside the commonwealth of a purchaser outside the commonwealth or (2) to an interstate carrier for delivery to a purchaser outside the commonwealth or to a designee outside the commonwealth of a purchaser outside the commonwealth.
(c) Casual and isolated sales by a vendor who is not regularly engaged in the business of making sales at retail; provided, however, that nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed to exempt any such sale of a motor vehicle or trailer, as defined in section one of chapter ninety, or any such sale of a boat or airplane from the tax imposed under chapter sixty-four I.
(d) Sales to the United States, the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, or their respective agencies.
(e) Sales to any corporation, foundation, organization or institution, which is exempt from taxation under the provisions of section five hundred and one (c)(3) of the Federal Internal Revenue Code, as amended, and in effect for the applicable period; provided, however, that such sales shall not be exempt unless (1) the tangible personal property or services which are the subject of such sales is used in the conduct of such religious, charitable, educational or scientific enterprise, (2) such corporation, foundation, organization or institution shall have first obtained a certification from the commissioner stating that it is entitled to such exemption, and (3) the vendor keeps a record of the sales price of each such separate sale, the name of the purchaser, the date of each such separate sale, and the number of such certificate. The certificate of exemption issued by the commissioner under clause (2) shall be effective for a period of 10 years from the date of its issuance or until January first, nineteen hundred and eighty-four, whichever shall last expire provided that ninety days prior to said date the commissioner shall notify such corporation, foundation, organization or institution of the expiration date of said certificate. Such corporation, foundation, organization or institution must obtain from the commissioner a renewal of such certificate in order to be entitled to a continuance of such exemption beyond the expiration date of any existing certificate.
(f) Sales of building materials and supplies to be used in the construction, reconstruction, alteration, remodeling or repair of (1) any building structure, public highway, bridge or other public works owned by or held in trust for the benefit of any governmental body or agency mentioned in paragraph (d) and used exclusively for public purposes;
(2) any building or structure owned by or held in trust for the benefit of any corporation, foundation, organization or institution described in paragraph (e) and used exclusively in the conduct of its religious, scientific, charitable or educational purposes;
(3) any building, structure, residence, school or other facility included under any written contract dated on or after January 1, 1985 arising out of or related to the Massachusetts Port Authority residential and school soundproofing programs, notwithstanding whether such building, structure, residence, school or other facility is owned by or held in trust for the benefit of the Massachusetts Port Authority or is used exclusively for public purposes; provided, however, that such governmental body or agency or such corporation, foundation, organization or institution shall have first obtained a certificate from the commissioner stating that it is entitled to such exemption and the vendor keeps a record of the sales price of each such separate sale, the name of the purchaser, the date of each such separate sale and the number of such certificate; and (4) any building or structure located in a Marine Industrial Park, as defined by 310 C.M.R. 9.02; provided, however, that said building or structure is exclusively used for agricultural production or seafood processing or as a seafood storage facility, notwithstanding whether such building or structure is owned by or held in trust for the benefit of any governmental body or agency mentioned in paragraph (d) and used exclusively for public purposes; provided, further, that if the building or structure ceases to be used exclusively for agricultural production or seafood processing or as a seafood storage facility, use tax shall accrue on a portion of the sales price on which the exemption was claimed that is proportionate to the remaining useful life of the property. In this paragraph the words ''building materials and supplies'' shall include all materials and supplies consumed, employed or expended in the construction, reconstruction, alteration, remodeling or repair of any building, structure, public highway, bridge or other such public work, as well as such materials and supplies physically incorporated therein. Said terms shall also include rental charges for construction vehicles, equipment and machinery rented specifically for use on the site of any such tax exempt project or while being used exclusively for the transportation of materials for any such tax exempt project.
(g) Sales of tangible personal property includable in the measure of the excises levied under the provisions of chapters sixty-four A, sixty-four E, 64F and 138.
(h) Sales of food products for human consumption. ''Food products'' includes cereals and cereal products, flour and flour products, milk and milk products, including ice cream, oleomargarine, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, eggs and egg products, vegetables and vegetable products, fruit and fruit products, soft drinks, herbs, spices and salt, sugar and sugar products, candy and confectionery; coffee and coffee substitutes, tea, cocoa and cocoa products; and ice when used for household consumption. ''Food products'' does not include alcoholic beverages as defined in chapter one hundred and thirty-eight except as hereinafter provided, marijuana products intended for consumption as provided in the definition of ''marijuana products'' in section 1 of chapter 94G, medicines, tonics and preparations in liquid, powdered, granular, tablet, capsule, lozenge and pill form sold as dietary supplements or adjuncts. ''Food products'' does not include meals consisting of any of the items defined as food products in this paragraph for consumption on or off the premises where sold.
''Honor snack tray'', any vending arrangement in which only candy or snacks are available in an open tray for the benefit of employees in an establishment that normally does not sell food or food products and for which payment is made on the honor system.
''Meals'' shall mean any food or beverage, or both, prepared for human consumption and provided by a restaurant, where the food or beverages is intended for consumption on or off the restaurant premises, and includes food or beverages sold on a ''take out'' or ''to go'' basis, whether or not they are packaged or wrapped and whether or not they are taken from the premises of the restaurant.
''Restaurant'', shall mean any eating establishment where food, food products, or beverages are provided and for which a charge is made, including but not limited to, a cafe, lunch counter, private or social club, cocktail lounge, hotel dining room, catering business, tavern, diner, snack bar, dining room, vending machine, and any other place or establishment where food or beverages are provided, whether stationary or mobile, temporary or permanent; provided, however, that delicatessen, grocery, market or bakery stores shall not be considered eating establishments within the meaning of this chapter except for any part of such a store which engages, in the sale of dinners, luncheons, barbecued chicken, other than barbecued chicken sold whole and unsliced, sandwiches, snacks, pizzas, and other similar items which are commonly sold at snack bars, coffee shops or luncheon counters; provided, further, that such stores shall not be deemed to be restaurants under this chapter based solely on the preparation and sale of prepared meat, poultry and fish items if such sales constitute less than a major portion of the total sale of such stores; and provided, further, that a vending machine or honor snack tray shall not be considered an eating establishment within the meaning of this chapter in the instance in which it sells only snacks or candy with a sales price of less than $3.50; and, provided further, that a bed and breakfast establishment or bed and breakfast home, as defined in chapter sixty-four G, shall not be considered an eating establishment within the meaning of this chapter where the value of a breakfast served is included in the rent subject to tax under said chapter sixty-four G.
The following food or beverages sold by a restaurant for consumption off the restaurant premises shall not be deemed to be a meal for the purposes of this chapter:— (a) Food sold by weight, liquid or dry measure, count, or in unopened original containers or packages, including, but not limited to, meat, bread, milk, specialty foods, cream and ice cream; provided, that such foods are commonly sold in such manner in a retail food store which is not a restaurant; (b) Beverages in unopened original containers or packages when sold as a unit having a capacity of at least twenty-six fluid ounces; and (c) Bakery products including but not limited to doughnuts, muffins, bagels, and similar items sold in units of six or more. Prepared meals, snacks, sandwiches, food platters, poultry, fish or meat items, or other food combinations, to the extent that such items are sold by a restaurant whose principal business is the preparation or sale of such items in such form as to be available for immediate consumption without further significant preparation, whether for on or off premise consumption, shall not be excluded under clause (a), (b), or (c).
(i) The sales, furnishing or service of (1) water;
(2) gas, steam or electricity used for residential purposes;
(3) gas, steam or electricity which are consumed and used directly and exclusively in an industrial plant in the actual manufacture of tangible personal property to be sold or in the heating of such industrial plant; provided that the exemption under this subparagraph (3) shall only be allowed with respect to a metered building, location or premises at which not less than seventy-five percent of the gas, steam or electricity consumed at such metered building, location or premises is used for the purposes of such manufacturing or heating; and the term ''industrial plant'' shall mean a factory at a fixed location primarily engaged in the manufacture, conversion or processing of tangible personal property to be sold in the regular course of business; and (4) residential main telephone services billed on a monthly recurring basis or billed as message units, and residential intra local access and transport area service billed on a recurring monthly basis; provided that such exemption under this subparagraph (4) shall not exceed the amount of thirty dollars per month.
(j) Sales of (1) fuel used for residential heating purposes;
(2) fuel used for heating purposes in an industrial plant; provided that the exemption under this subparagraph (2) shall only be allowed with respect to a building, location or premises in which not less than seventy-five percent of the building, location or premises is used in the actual manufacture of tangible personal property to be sold; and the term ''industrial plant'' shall mean a factory at a fixed location primarily engaged in the manufacture, conversion or processing of tangible personal property to be sold in the regular course of business; and (3) fuel used in the operation of aircraft or used in the operation of railroads.
(k) Sales of articles of clothing, including footwear, intended to be worn or carried on or about the human body up to one hundred and seventy-five dollars of the sales price on any article of clothing. For the purposes of this section clothing or footwear shall not include special clothing or footwear primarily designed for athletic activity or protective use and which is not normally worn except when so used.
(l) Sales of medicine, insulin needles and insulin syringes on prescriptions of registered physicians and sales of insulin; sales of oxygen, blood or blood plasma; sales of artificial devices individually designed, constructed or altered solely for the use of a particular crippled person so as to become a brace, support, supplement, correction or substitute for the bodily structure including the extremities of the individual; sales of artificial limbs, artificial eyes, hearing aids and other equipment worn as a correction or substitute for any functioning portion of the body; sales of artificial teeth by a dentist and the materials used by a dentist in dental treatment; sales of eyeglasses, when especially designed or prescribed by an ophthalmologist, oculist or optometrist for the personal use of the owner or purchaser; sales of crutches and wheel chairs for the use of invalids and crippled persons; and sales of baby oil; and the rental, sales and repairs of kidney dialysis machines, enteral and parenteral feedings, and feeding devices, suction machines, physician-prescribed, medically necessary breast pumps, oxygen concentrators, oxygen regulators, oxygen humidifiers, oxygen masks, oxygen cannulas, ultrasonic nebulizers, life sustaining resuscitators, incubators, heart pacemakers, canes, all types of hospital beds for home use, tripod quad canes, breast prosthesis, alternating pressure pad units and patient lifts, when prescribed by a physician.
(m) Sales of newspapers, magazines, books required for instructional purposes in educational institutions, books used for religious worship, publications of any corporation, foundation, organization or institution described in paragraph (e) of this section and produced in an accessible format, including, but not limited to, braille, enlarged print, audio or electronic text, for use by individuals unable to read other print due to disability, and motion picture films for commercial exhibition.
(n) Sales of coffins, caskets, burial garments or other materials which are ordinarily sold by a funeral director as part of the business of funeral directing.
(o) Sales of vessels or barges of fifty tons burden or over when constructed in the commonwealth and sold by builders thereof; sales of fuel or substitute therefor, supplies and repairs to vessels engaged in foreign and interstate commerce and sales of vessels used directly and exclusively in commercial fishing, machinery and equipment therefor and replacement parts for such vessels, machinery and equipment.
(p)
1. (1) Sales of livestock and poultry of a kind which ordinarily constitute food for human consumption;
2. (2) sales of feed, including the bags in which the feed is customarily contained, for livestock and poultry of a kind which ordinarily constitute food for human consumption or are to be sold in the regular course of business or for animals produced for research, testing, or other purposes relating to the promotion or maintenance of the health, safety or well being of human beings or animals or for fur-bearing animals, the pelts of which are sold in the regular course of business;
3. (3) sales of fertilizer, including ground limestone, hydrated lime, seed inoculants and plant hormones, as well as other substances commonly regarded in the same category and for the same use, but not including any sales of pesticides, including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, miticides and all materials registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and other pesticides commonly regarded in the same category and for the same purpose, except when purchased by a person licensed under chapter 132B or otherwise exempt under paragraph (r); and (4) sales of plants, including parts of plants, suitable for planting to produce food for human consumption or when such plants, including parts thereof or the produce thereof, are to be sold in the regular course of business, including such items as seed potatoes, onion sets, asparagus roots, berry plants or bushes, and fruit trees.
(q)
1. (1) Sales of both returnable and nonreturnable containers when sold without the contents to persons who place the contents in the container and sell the contents together with the container;
2. (2) containers when sold with the contents if the sale price of the contents is not required to be included in the measure of the taxes imposed by this chapter;
3. (3) returnable containers when sold with the contents or resold for refilling. As used in this paragraph the term ''returnable containers'' means containers of a kind customarily returned by the buyer of the contents for reuse. All other containers are ''nonreturnable'' containers. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed so as to tax the sale of bags in which feed for livestock and poultry is contained.
(r) Sales of materials, tools and fuel, or any substitute therefor, which become an ingredient or component part of tangible personal property to be sold or which are consumed and used directly and exclusively in agricultural production; in commercial fishing; in an industrial plant in the actual manufacture of tangible personal property to be sold, including the publishing of a newspaper; in the operation of commercial radio broadcasting or television transmission; in the furnishing of power to an industrial manufacturing plant; in the furnishing of gas, water, steam or electricity when delivered to consumers through mains, lines or pipes; in the production of animals for research, testing, or other purposes relating to the promotion or maintenance of the health, safety or well being of human beings or animals or in research and development by a manufacturing corporation or a research and development corporation within the meaning of section forty-two B of chapter sixty-three. However, the exemption in this paragraph so far as it applies to sales of electricity, gas and steam consumed and used directly and exclusively in an industrial plant in the actual manufacture of tangible personal property to be sold shall be limited to the extent allowed in paragraph (i). For the purpose of this paragraph, the raising of poultry and livestock shall be construed to be included in the term ''agricultural production''; any material, tool or fuel shall be construed to be consumed and used only if its normal useful life is less than one year or if its cost is allowable as an ordinary and necessary business expense for federal income tax purposes or if it is nuclear fuel or a nuclear fuel assembly; and the term ''industrial plant'' shall mean a factory at a fixed location primarily engaged in the manufacture, conversion or processing of tangible personal property to be sold in the regular course of business.
(s) Sales of machinery, or replacement parts thereof, used directly and exclusively in agricultural production; in commercial fishing; in an industrial plant in the actual manufacture of tangible personal property to be sold, including the publishing of a newspaper; in the operation of commercial radio broadcasting or television transmission; in the furnishing of power to an industrial manufacturing plant; in the furnishing of gas, water, steam or electricity when delivered to consumers through mains, lines or pipes; in the production of animals for research, testing, or other purposes relating to the promotion or maintenance of the health, safety or well being of human beings or animals or in research and development by a manufacturing corporation or a research and development corporation within the meaning of section forty-two B of chapter sixty-three. For the purpose of this paragraph, the raising of poultry and livestock shall be construed to be included in the term ''agricultural production''; the term ''industrial plant'' shall mean a factory at a fixed location primarily engaged in the manufacture, conversion or processing of tangible personal property to be sold in the regular course of business; and machinery shall be deemed to be used directly and exclusively in the actual manufacture, conversion or processing of tangible personal property to be sold only where such machinery is used solely during a manufacturing, conversion or processing operation to effect a direct and immediate physical change upon the tangible personal property to be sold; to guide or measure a direct and immediate physical change upon such property where such function is an integral and essential part of tuning, verifying or aligning the component parts of such property; or to test or measure such property where such function is an integral part of the production flow or function; used solely to store, transport, convey or handle such property during the manufacturing, converting, or processing operations heretofore specified; or used solely to place such property in the container, package or wrapping in which such property is normally sold to the ultimate consumer thereof. Machinery used directly and exclusively in the actual manufacture, conversion or processing of any tangible personal property which is not to be sold and which would be exempt under paragraph (r) or this paragraph if purchased from a vendor thereof or machinery used during any manufacturing, converting or processing, conveying or packaging operation or function or for any other purpose, except as heretofore specified, shall not be exempt under this paragraph even though such operation, function or purpose is an integral or essential part of a continuous production flow or manufacturing process. Where a portion of a group of portable or mobile machinery is used directly and exclusively in the actual manufacture, conversion or processing of tangible personal property to be sold, as heretofore defined, the number represented by such portion, if otherwise qualifying, shall be exempt under this paragraph even though the machinery in said group is used interchangeably and not otherwise identifiable as to use.
(t) Sales of tangible personal property through coin operated vending machines at ten cents or less, provided the retailer is primarily engaged in making such sales and keeps records satisfactory to the commissioner.
(u) Sale of a motor vehicle purchased by and for the use of a person who has suffered loss, or permanent loss of use, of both legs or both arms or 1 leg and 1 arm or by and for the use of a veteran who has been determined to be permanently disabled by the medical advisory board established under section 8C of chapter 90 and has been issued a plate displaying the words ''Disabled Veteran'' or a Purple Heart distinctive registration plate pursuant to section 2J of said chapter 90; provided, however, that this exemption shall apply to 1 motor vehicle owned and registered only for the personal, noncommercial use of such person. A person who is otherwise eligible for this exemption and who was previously issued a Purple Heart distinctive registration plate shall not be required to forfeit such plate to remain eligible for this exemption.
(v) Sales of wearing materials or any cloth made up of natural or synthetic fibers and used for clothing purposes.
(w) Sales of the flag of the United States.
(x) Sales of fire trucks to any volunteer, nonprofit fire company or similar organization furnishing public fire protection, and sales of ambulances to any volunteer, nonprofit organization furnishing a public ambulance service, provided that such company or organization has first obtained a certification from the commissioner stating that it is entitled to this exemption.
(y) Sales of concrete mixing units or replacement parts thereof, to be mounted on truck chassis; provided, however, that sales of truck chassis shall not be exempt under this paragraph.
(z) All medical implements, pads, pouches and solutions purchased by a person who has undergone a colostomy or an ileostomy and which are used entirely as the result of such operation.
(aa) Sales of new and used motor buses used to provide scheduled, intracity local service (as defined by the department of telecommunications and energy), and repair or replacement parts therefor, and materials and tools used in and for the maintenance and repair thereof to, and for the use of common carriers of passengers by motor vehicle for hire, which hold at least one certificate, issued by the department of telecommunications and energy pursuant to the provisions of section seven of chapter one hundred and fifty-nine A. Upon receipt of appropriate evidence of the possession of such a certificate, the commissioner shall prepare and issue to any such duly certificated common carrier a statement that it is entitled to the exemption granted by this paragraph.
The presentation of a copy of the statement which the commissioner is required to prepare and furnish hereunder to the registrar of motor vehicles shall be deemed to constitute compliance with the provisions of the second paragraph of section twenty-five in respect to furnishing evidence of the payment of the tax which would otherwise be due under this chapter.
If any common carrier which qualifies for the exemption granted by this subsection (aa) should ever lose its exempt status hereunder and thereafter purchase any of the items of personal property enumerated hereinabove without paying in full the tax due, it shall be liable to pay interest on the entire unpaid portion of any tax due from it at the rate of six per cent per annum until paid.
Any vendor to whom a copy of the statement, which the commissioner is required to prepare and furnish hereunder, is furnished shall be entitled to rely thereon and he shall not be liable for the collection or payment of the tax which would otherwise be imposed by this chapter.
[There is no paragraph (bb).]