Sales Tax Exemptions Explained: Who and What Is Exempt, and How to Claim It

This guide is the conceptual map: what an exemption is, the three families they fall into, how each is claimed and proved, and where the answer changes across a state line. It is not a fifty-state lookup. For the rate that applies once a sale is taxable use the sales tax calculator or the state rate table; for certificate operations read resale and exemption certificates. Two very different readers arrive here — a shopper wondering why the receipt taxed one line and not the next, and a business asking when it may lawfully not charge tax.

What a sales tax exemption actually is

An exemption is subtraction, not absence. The sale must be inside the tax base before an exemption can matter, and that base is built the same way almost everywhere: retail sales of tangible personal property are taxable, services are not unless the state has listed them. California describes its sales and use taxes as applying to the retail sale or use of physical goods, then treats everything that reduces the obligation as a separate class of relief¹.

Start from the exemption and you will ask the wrong question. Ask first whether the sale is taxable at all — much of what people call exempt was never in the base, including most professional services in most states. Which services got pulled in is its own subject, in are services taxable.

Every exemption answers three questions

A working exemption settles three things, and an auditor tests all three years later. What is exempt: the item, the transaction, or the buyer. What evidence had to exist at the moment of sale, which is almost always a certificate in the seller's hands. And who pays if the claim was wrong — usually the buyer, but the seller once the paperwork is missing. Miss the second and a legitimate exemption still collapses, because a state need not accept an explanation offered after the fact.

Exemption, exclusion, zero-rated and exempt: four words that are not synonyms

These four get used interchangeably and mean four different things. Getting them straight changes what you must document and, in the value-added world, whether a business can recover tax on its own costs.

The edge is practical: a seller who fails to collect on an excluded transaction has no evidentiary problem, while on an exempt one the same seller has a problem the moment the certificate goes missing. Two identical untaxed lines on one invoice can carry very different audit risk for that reason alone.

The other two words come from VAT systems. A zero-rated supply is taxable at a rate of nought, which keeps the seller inside the system and lets it reclaim VAT on its inputs; an exempt supply is outside it, so the seller charges nothing and recovers nothing. US sales tax has no equivalent split because it is charged once at retail — see sales tax versus VAT, and the sharpest divergence in digital products.

The three kinds of exemption: by product, by use, by buyer

Every sales tax exemption attaches to one of three things, and identifying which tells you almost everything else about it. A product exemption belongs to the item: nobody pays tax on it and no paperwork changes hands. A use exemption belongs to what the buyer will do with the item, so the same item is taxed or not depending on the answer, and the buyer must declare it. A buyer exemption belongs to the purchaser, travels across most of what it buys, and is normally granted by the state in advance.

The taxonomy is not invented here. It sits on the face of the multi-state form twenty-four states share: the Streamlined Certificate of Exemption asks the purchaser to tick one lettered reason, and the letters sort cleanly into buyer-based and use-based grounds¹⁸. Product exemptions are absent for the obvious reason — nobody has to certify that milk is milk.

How the Streamlined form encodes the taxonomy

Codes as printed on the Streamlined Sales Tax Certificate of Exemption, read August 2026¹⁸. Not every member state allows every reason on the form.

Product exemptions: what the state decided not to tax at all

These are the exemptions consumers actually meet. They exist because taxing necessities at the same rate as luxuries is regressive, so legislatures carve out food, medicine and — in a minority of states — clothing. No certificate is involved and the exemption applies to every buyer identically. They are also the messiest category, because each carve-out has carve-outs of its own.

Food, and the exceptions that catch everyone

Texas is a clean illustration. Flour, sugar, bread, milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables are not subject to Texas sales tax². Then the exceptions arrive: candy and gum are taxable, so are soft drinks including energy and sports drinks unless they carry a Supplement Facts panel, so is ice, and so is prepared food — defined to include hot food, anything sold with eating utensils, and anything the seller combined from two or more ingredients such as salad, salsa or hummus.

Two Texas rules surprise people. A bakery item is untaxed when the business qualifies as a bakery, meaning more than half of sales are bakery items from a display case consumed off the premises. And snack items are taxable in individual-sized portions — under 2.5 ounces or labelled as no more than one serving — yet untaxed in a multipack². A customer using the shop's microwave creates no tax; a staff member using it does.

Pennsylvania draws the line elsewhere, exempting food that is not ready-to-eat and, unlike Texas, exempting candy and gum outright⁵. Where grocery treatment ends and restaurant treatment begins is in sales tax for restaurants; the state-by-state position is in grocery and clothing sales tax by state.

Medicine, and why the label decides it

Medicine exemptions have quietly moved from a prescription test to a labelling test. Texas exempts over-the-counter drugs that the Food and Drug Administration requires to carry a Drug Facts panel, with no prescription needed; a product that meets the definition of a drug but has no such label needs a physician to prescribe or dispense it. The exemption extends to wound care supplies and to dietary supplements carrying a Supplement Facts panel, then stops hard at products containing cannabidiol, which Texas says are not classified as supplements and are not eligible³. Pennsylvania gets to a similar place by simply listing pharmaceutical drugs among its exemptions⁵.

Clothing, and the price-cap mechanic

Clothing has the most interesting machinery, because several states exempt it only below a threshold. New York exempts clothing and footwear sold for less than $110 per item or pair from the state's 4% rate, and the exemption does not reach local sales tax unless the county or city has elected to grant it⁴.

Three details do the work. The threshold is per item, not per receipt: New York's own example has a shopper buy two shirts, two pairs of trousers and a dress totalling $190, with every item qualifying because each costs less than $110. Localities may switch their election, but only with effect from 1 March. And the exemption reaches the ⅜% Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District tax only inside localities that elected in⁴. The exemption also carries through to most fabric, thread, yarn, buttons, zippers and similar items used to make or repair exempt clothing — unless they are made of pearls, precious stones or precious metals, in which case they stay taxable however cheap they are⁴. The same jumper can therefore carry three outcomes within one state, which is why the rate to trust is one resolved from a full address — see rates by ZIP code and the New York rate page. Pennsylvania takes the simpler route, exempting most clothing with no ceiling alongside textbooks⁵, while Texas lists clothing and books among the non-food items on which tax is due².

Category treatment and the 6% state plus 2% Philadelphia rate from Pennsylvania Department of Revenue guidance⁵; method per how to calculate sales tax.

Two states, six categories, four disagreements. Texas publications 96-280² and 94-155³; Pennsylvania Department of Revenue⁵. Read August 2026.

Use exemptions: the same item, taxed or not depending on what you do with it

Use exemptions are where businesses live and where most failures happen. The item is ordinary and fully taxable in general — a steel sheet, a computer, a sack of feed — and the exemption exists only because of what the buyer will do next. The state cannot see the future use, so the buyer must declare it. That declaration is the certificate.

Resale: the exemption that prevents double taxation

The oldest and most-used exemption stops one item being taxed twice on its way to a consumer: a shop hands its supplier a resale certificate, pays no tax, and collects from the final customer instead. The failure mode is buying under resale something you will consume. Washington states it flatly — reseller permits may not buy tools or equipment unless you are in the business of reselling or renting them, and misuse means the tax due plus a 50 percent penalty, imposed even where no fraud was intended²⁰. Mechanics are in resale and exemption certificates; the three-party version is in drop shipping and sales tax.

Ingredient, component and the direct-use line

Manufacturing exemptions extend resale logic to things consumed rather than resold intact. Texas exempts property that becomes an ingredient or component of an item manufactured for sale, and property that makes a chemical or physical change in the product and is necessary and essential to the process⁶.

The revealing part is where the state stops. Texas excludes hand tools — a hammer is taxable even when used to fabricate a product for sale — along with conveyors, forklifts, cranes, janitorial equipment, office equipment, and air conditioning for employee comfort⁶. The process begins at the first activity that changes the raw material and ends when the product has the properties it will have when sold, packaging included; everything outside that window is support, and support is taxable. The boundary is worked through in manufacturing exemptions; builders face the mirror image in sales tax for construction contractors.

Agriculture, and the number you need first

Farming exemptions look buyer-based and are not. Texas is explicit that agricultural and timber producers are not exempt entities and that only items used exclusively to produce products for sale qualify. Every purchaser, including non-residents, must hold a valid Ag/Timber Number issued by the Comptroller, and without one you simply pay tax to the retailer. Numbers renew every four years on a fixed cycle rather than an anniversary, with both renewed and newly issued numbers currently expiring on 31 December 2027, and that expiry date has to be written on the certificate you give the retailer⁷.

Interstate commerce and export

A sale that leaves the state is often untaxable by that state, but the rule is narrower than sellers assume, and California is candid about who carries the risk: the retailer has the burden of proving facts establishing the right to exemption⁸. For shipments to other states, California taxes goods handed to the buyer inside the state whatever the buyer intends next, and does not tax goods the contract requires to be shipped out where the retailer delivers to a carrier, customs broker or forwarding agent — adding pointedly that nobody becomes a carrier merely by being nominated by the purchaser to receive and ship the goods⁸.

Exports are stricter. The property must be intended for a foreign destination, irrevocably committed to the exportation process at the time of sale, and delivered abroad before any use. Intent is irrelevant: the regulation offers the example of equipment loaded onto a foreign purchaser's aircraft, which fails even with a filed flight plan to a foreign destination, and notes that fuel consumed on a voyage is not exempt though it never returns⁸. The counterpart question of what the destination state may demand is in use tax versus sales tax.

Buyer exemptions: who gets to buy tax-free

These are the exemptions people mean when they say they are tax exempt. They belong to the purchaser, apply across most of what it buys, and are the narrowest of the three families — the list of entities that genuinely hold one is far shorter than the number of organisations that believe they do.

The federal government, and the rule that decides purchase cards

Federal entities are exempt everywhere and do not apply for it. Texas states that federal government entities, including all political subdivisions, agencies, departments and branches of the military, are exempt by law and need not apply⁹. California's regulation covers the United States, its unincorporated agencies and instrumentalities, and certain incorporated ones such as federal reserve banks and federal credit unions¹⁰.

The consequential part is how payment is made. California requires it to come directly from the United States, and says that where a non-exempt party pays in full and then seeks reimbursement, the entire amount is taxable even though the government may reimburse that party completely¹⁰. That sentence explains a rule federal travellers trip over constantly. Purchase cards come in two forms — centrally billed accounts paid by the agency, and individually billed accounts paid by the employee and reimbursed — and the General Services Administration publishes the resulting status state by state. California lists individually billed accounts as not exempt while centrally billed accounts are exempt; Texas and New York list both as exempt¹¹.

Treatment from California Regulation 1614¹⁰ and the GSA SmartPay listing for California¹¹. The 9.75% figure is the combined Los Angeles rate in this site's 2026 data; confirm an exact address with the sales tax calculator.

Two edge cases are worth filing away. Armed forces exchanges, messes and civilian welfare funds count as instrumentalities, so sales to them are untaxed — but sales to individual service members are taxable even when billed through an exchange. And under Medicare, an item sold to a patient insured under Part A is an exempt sale to the United States, while the identical item sold to a Part B patient is taxable¹⁰. Buyer exemptions turn on who pays, not on who benefits.

State and local government — including the government of somewhere else

A state's own government is normally exempt at home without applying. Texas confirms that its state and local bodies, agencies, school districts and political subdivisions are exempt by law, and that Texas public schools, colleges and universities hold a dual exemption as educational organisations and government entities⁹.

Then comes the line that catches procurement teams. Texas states that government entities of other states are not exempt, and separately that foreign governments are not exempt⁹. A city agency from a neighbouring state buying equipment in Texas pays Texas tax, and its own exemption letter is worth nothing across the border. Lodging taxes follow their own rules again, often with a separate certificate — see short-term rental and lodging tax.

Tribal governments and foreign diplomats

Tribal governments appear as their own reason code on the Streamlined certificate, distinct from federal and state government¹⁸, reflecting a body of law on on-reservation sales that varies by state and by tribe.

Diplomatic exemption is federal and international rather than state. The State Department's Office of Foreign Missions, created by the Foreign Missions Act at 22 U.S.C. 4301-4316, runs the Diplomatic Tax Exemption Program, providing sales and use, occupancy, food, airline, gas and utility tax exemptions to eligible foreign officials posted here. The privileges rest on the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and on Consular Relations, and OFM stresses reciprocity: no privilege is granted to a foreign official here unless United States embassy and consular personnel receive the equivalent abroad, so not every mission qualifies¹². Texas points sellers to the same source, noting that OFM and the American Institute in Taiwan issue the cards⁹. For a retailer, the card in front of you evidences the exemption, and the restrictions printed on it govern.

The nonprofit question, answered properly

This is the biggest misconception in the subject, so bluntly: being a nonprofit does not make you exempt from sales tax, and a federal 501(c)(3) determination letter is not a sales tax exemption. Federal income tax status and state sales tax status are decided by different governments under different laws, and they routinely disagree.

California says so directly. Although many nonprofit and religious organisations are exempt from federal and state income tax, there is no similar broad exemption from California sales and use tax; generally a nonprofit's sales and purchases are taxable, and such organisations are treated like other California sellers and buyers¹³. Washington is equally plain: state law gives nonprofit organisations no blanket sales or use tax exemption, they pay sales tax on goods and retail services bought as consumers, and they must collect and remit retail sales tax on their own sales. What Washington offers instead are narrow reliefs, including a use tax exemption for donated goods and limited fundraising exemptions¹⁴. It also catches visiting organisations: most purchases made by out-of-state nonprofits or their members while attending a convention, meeting or workshop in Washington are subject to sales tax, whether the individual or the organisation pays¹⁴.

Where a state does grant the exemption, qualifying is narrower than the word nonprofit suggests. Texas sorts applicants into defined categories and applies each one strictly: charitable means devoting substantially all activity to easing poverty, disease, pain and suffering by giving food, medicine, treatment, shelter, clothing or counselling directly to the needy for little or no fee, so a homeless shelter or soup kitchen qualifies while a service league or medical association does not. Educational means a regularly scheduled curriculum with faculty and enrolled students, which lets school parent-teacher associations through. Religious means a recognised group meeting regularly at the same location to conduct worship, so a congregation qualifies where an association of ministers does not⁹.

Four states, four different answers

Positions as published by each department, read August 2026. Nonprofit treatment is amended more often than most exemption law — confirm before relying on it.

Three traps even exempt organisations fall into

The identification number. New York states that the nine-digit federal employer identification number issued by the Internal Revenue Service is not a sales tax exemption number, and that an approved organisation receives a separate six-digit New York number instead¹⁵. Handing a cashier an EIN is not claiming an exemption. The nuance worth holding is that the same number can still be the right thing to write on a form: New Jersey lets purchasers who are not registered there put a federal employer identification number, or a registration number from another state, in place of a New Jersey tax identification number when issuing certain certificates¹⁹. The EIN identifies you; it never entitles you.

Whose money buys it. New York instructs that you may not use personal funds to buy on the organisation's behalf even if you will be reimbursed, and that such purchases are taxable¹⁵. Texas says the same about employees and volunteers, even travelling on official business⁹. It is the direct-payment principle again.

The purpose test. Texas requires purchases to relate to the exempt purpose, with the memorable illustration that beer, wine and spirits do not usually qualify — while an exempt religious organisation may buy sacramental wine tax free⁹. Misuse is taken seriously: New York warns that misuse of an exempt organisation certificate is punishable by imprisonment and a fine of up to $20,000¹⁵.

How to claim a sales tax exemption as a buyer

Claiming an exemption is an act you perform at the till, not a status you carry. With few exceptions, a buyer claims one by handing the seller a properly completed exemption certificate at the time of the sale — the document that says why no tax was charged and gives the state something to inspect years later. New York captures it in a sentence: the purchaser fills out the certificate and gives it to the seller, the seller keeps it, and the seller may then sell without charging tax¹⁶.

Product exemptions are the exception that proves the rule — New York notes that certain sales are always exempt and need no certificate¹⁶. Nobody certifies bread. Everything else follows these six steps.

1. Decide which of the three kinds you are claiming. Work out whether the exemption belongs to the product, to the use you will put it to, or to you as a buyer. That single decision determines the form you need and the evidence you have to keep.
2. Confirm the state actually grants it. Check the rule in the state where the sale happens, not the state you are based in. Exemptions are state law, and neighbouring states routinely disagree about the same item.
3. Register first if the exemption belongs to you. Buyer-based and producer-based exemptions normally require a state-issued number or letter before your first tax-free purchase. A federal determination letter is not a substitute for one.
4. Pick the right certificate for the reason. Resale, exempt use, exempt organisation and agricultural purchases each have their own form in most states. Using a resale certificate for something you will consume yourself is the most common way to void a claim.
5. Hand the completed certificate to the seller at the time of sale. Complete every required field, including the seller's name and address and your identification number, and give it to the seller when you buy. New York and New Jersey both work to a ninety-day outer limit after the sale.
6. Keep your copy and keep it current. Retain the certificate with the invoice, note the expiry where one applies, and reissue a blanket certificate whenever your address, number or business changes.

Two steps deserve emphasis because they are where claims die. Registering first applies to buyer-based and producer-based exemptions only: a nonprofit needs the state's own exemption number and a Texas farmer needs an Ag/Timber Number before the first purchase, not afterwards⁷. And "fully completed" is a term of art — New Jersey lists the exact data elements a certificate must carry, and the relief it gives sellers hangs on that phrase¹⁹.

Certificates in practice: deadlines, blanket forms and multi-state paperwork

Certificates have their own procedural law, and it is the part buyers never read. What matters is timing, scope and geography.

The form itself is not a formality. New York requires the certificate to carry the seller's name and address, the identification number from the purchaser's Certificate of Authority where that certificate calls for one, and whatever else that particular form demands; most sellers must themselves hold a valid Certificate of Authority before they may accept one at all. None of this has to happen on paper — exemption certificates may be issued and accepted electronically, and a seller that keys a paper certificate into an electronic system is not required to keep the original¹⁶¹⁹.

Timing: the ninety-day rule and its audit cousin

Handing it over at the moment of sale is safest, but states allow a window. New York requires the purchaser to give a properly completed certificate within 90 days of the sale, warning that otherwise both buyer and seller could be held liable¹⁶. New Jersey uses the same period from the seller's side: accepting a fully completed certificate within 90 days relieves the seller of liability even if the purchaser claimed the exemption improperly, in which case the purchaser is liable instead¹⁹.

A second, longer window opens once an auditor is in the building. New Jersey gives a seller who never obtained a certificate, or obtained an incomplete one, at least 120 days after the Division's request to produce a fully completed certificate taken in good faith, or other evidence that the transaction was not taxable¹⁹. Washington allows sellers up to 120 days from the date of sale to collect documentation in the ordinary course²⁰. Missing paperwork is usually curable — but only until the request lands.

Scope: blanket versus single purchase

Buying from one supplier repeatedly, a blanket certificate saves a form per order. New York allows one certificate to cover all similar purchases from that seller, effective as long as you keep making exempt purchases — but you must issue an updated one if your address, identification number or other details change, and the seller may ask for a refresh at any time¹⁶. If the form has no blanket box, it cannot be used as one. Retention periods differ and you must satisfy the strictest you are exposed to: New York requires at least three years from the due date of the return on which the last sale was reported¹⁶, New Jersey not less than four¹⁹, and Washington five years after the sale²⁰.

Geography: one form for many states

The default is that certificates do not travel. New York states that exemption certificates of other states or countries are not valid for New York state and local sales and use tax¹⁶. Multi-state sellers therefore maintain a different form per state, which is exactly the problem the Streamlined project set out to solve. The Streamlined Sales Tax Certificate of Exemption is accepted by all 24 member states, and you need not be registered through the Streamlined system to use it. It goes to the seller, never to the Governing Board or the states. The caveat is printed on the form: not every state allows every reason listed, and the purchaser is responsible for confirming eligibility in the state being claimed against¹⁷. What membership means is in the Streamlined Sales Tax guide.

Direct-pay permits: when you cannot know at purchase time

Some buyers genuinely cannot tell at the register how an item will be used — a manufacturer taking components that may go into production or into maintenance. A direct payment permit lets the buyer pay tax straight to the tax authority instead of the seller, once the use is known. New York describes it as available to eligible businesses unable to determine at the time of purchase how otherwise taxable property will be used, and stresses that a direct payment permit is not the same thing as an exemption certificate; eligibility demands registration plus all returns filed and taxes paid on time for the four preceding quarters²¹. It also has its own reason code on the Streamlined certificate¹⁸.

The seller's side: good faith, burden of proof and audit exposure

For a seller, every exempt sale is an unfunded liability until the paperwork is on file. If the certificate is good, the exposure moves to the buyer. If it is missing or defective, the seller pays tax it never collected, out of margin, plus interest.

The protective standard is good faith, and New Jersey is clearest about what that means. In an audit, a seller accepted a certificate in good faith where the exemption claimed was statutorily available on the date of the transaction, could be applicable to the item being purchased, and is reasonable for the purchaser's type of business. Meet those three and the seller is relieved unless it knew or had reason to know the information was materially false — and the burden is on the Division to establish that knowledge¹⁹. New York frames the same idea as ordinary care¹⁶, which is why the third limb has teeth: a furniture maker buying office supplies for resale should prompt a question rather than a shrug.

Sellers also hold a right most do not know about: they can refuse. New York confirms a seller may refuse a certificate even when correct and properly completed, and must then charge tax, leaving the buyer to claim a refund on Form AU-11¹⁶. Washington agrees, adding that a seller may refuse where it believes a permit is being misused or has expired, and recommends verifying reseller permits at least once a year through the free verification service²⁰.

The audit consequence of a thin certificate file is not subtle: Washington warns that failing to hold valid documentation may see a sale reclassified from wholesaling to retailing, with retail sales tax owed²⁰. What prompts a review is in what triggers a sales tax audit, the process in defending a sales tax audit, and the cost in sales tax penalties and interest.

When you were charged tax you did not owe

Exemptions get missed at the till constantly — the cashier did not know the rule, the till was configured wrong, or the certificate was refused. The money is usually recoverable, but the route runs through the seller first.

Texas sets it out step by step. A purchaser who holds no Texas sales and use tax permit must first ask the seller for a refund of tax paid in error. The seller either grants it or gives the buyer Form 00-985, Assignment of Right to Refund, which lets the buyer file directly with the Comptroller. A separate form is needed per vendor, the claim must state fully and in detail every ground it rests on, and the limitation period is generally four years from the date the tax was due and payable²².

Deadlines are the thing to check first, because they differ and they are short. New York allows three years from the date the tax was due to the department, or two years from the date you paid it, whichever is later, and wants the claim to carry an explanation of its basis plus the documents that substantiate it; the department is then obliged to process a properly completed claim within six months, and may route a heavily documented one into a field audit review instead²³.

The logic behind seller-first is that the seller, not the buyer, remitted the money, so the state's books are corrected through it. Before filing anything, work out what is at stake: the reverse sales tax calculator splits a gross receipt back into net and tax, and the ZIP-level rate lookup shows which combined rate should have applied at that address.

Common mistakes that void an exemption

Nearly every failed claim is one of a small number of recurring errors. Read them as a checklist: each has a specific rule behind it rather than being a matter of judgement.

• Treating a 501(c)(3) letter as a sales tax exemption. California and Washington grant nonprofits no general purchase exemption¹³¹⁴.
• Using a federal EIN as an exemption number. New York says the nine-digit IRS number is not one¹⁵.
• Paying personally and expecting reimbursement to preserve it. New York and Texas treat those purchases as taxable¹⁵⁹; California applies the same rule federally¹⁰.
• Presenting another state's certificate. New York rejects them outright¹⁶; use the Streamlined form where the state is a member¹⁷.
• Buying consumables on a resale certificate. Washington charges the tax plus a 50 percent penalty, fraud or not²⁰.
• Assuming a manufacturing exemption covers the whole factory. Texas excludes hand tools, conveyors, janitorial and office equipment, and comfort air conditioning⁶.
• Claiming an agricultural exemption without the state's number. Texas makes you pay the retailer without a valid Ag/Timber Number⁷.
• Assuming intent to export is enough. California requires irrevocable commitment to the exportation process at the time of sale⁸.
• Letting a blanket certificate go stale. A change of address, number or business means a fresh one in New York¹⁶.
• Forgetting that exempt buyers are often taxable sellers. A nonprofit selling goods generally collects tax on those sales¹⁴.

One further trap is structural rather than procedural: when a taxable item and an exempt item are sold together for a single price, the state may tax the whole bundle, and which way it falls is decided by the true object test. Vehicles are their own world, with trade-in credits and separate registration taxes, in car and vehicle sales tax. And if you are still working out whether you must collect in a state at all, start with the economic nexus guide — an exemption question you never had to answer is the cheapest kind.

Where to go next

• Resale and exemption certificates — what makes a certificate valid, and a process that survives an audit.
• Grocery and clothing sales tax by state — the full product-exemption map.
• Manufacturing exemptions — the direct-use test and where a production line legally begins.
• Texas sales tax rates and Washington sales tax rates — combined rates for two of the states quoted above.
• Global tax rates and our data sources — where these figures come from.