(a) There is exempt from this chapter any sales or use tax upon tangible personal property, computer software, or taxable services sold, given, or donated to any:

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 67-6-322

  • Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Commissioner: means and includes the commissioner of revenue or the commissioner's duly authorized assistants. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Computer: means an electronic device that accepts information in digital or similar form and manipulates it for a result based on a sequence of instructions. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Dealer: means every person, as used in this chapter, including Model 1, Model 2, and Model 3 sellers, where the context requires, who:
    (A) Manufactures or produces tangible personal property for sale at retail, for use, consumption, distribution, or for storage to be used or consumed in this state. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Energy resource recovery facility: means a facility for the production of energy in the form of steam or chilled water from the controlled burning of combustible materials, including, but not limited to, coal, fuel oil, or natural gas, where such energy is to be used in a system for heating and cooling five (5) or more separate buildings. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Person: includes any individual, firm, co-partnership, joint venture, association, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, syndicate, any governmental agency whose services are essentially a private commercial concern, or other group or combination acting as a unit, in the plural as well as the singular number. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Sale: includes the furnishing of any of the things or services taxable under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Software: means computer software. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Tangible personal property: includes electricity, water, gas, steam, and prewritten computer software. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Use: means and includes the exercise of any right or power over tangible personal property incident to the ownership thereof, except that it does not include the sale at retail of that property in the regular course of business. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Use tax: includes the "use" "consumption" "distribution" and "storage" as defined in this section. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
(1) Church, temple, synagogue or mosque;
(2) University, including the Agricultural Foundation for Tennessee Tech, Inc.;
(3) College;
(4) School;
(5) Orphanage;
(6) Institution organized for the principal purpose of placing homeless children in foster homes;
(7) Home for the aged;
(8) Hospital;
(9) Girls’ club;
(10) Boys’ club;
(11) Community health council;
(12) Volunteer fire department;
(13) Organ bank for transplantable tissue;
(14) Organization whose primary objective is to promote the spiritual and recreational environment of members of the armed services of the United States, such as the United Service Organization as it is presently conducted;
(15) Historical property owned by the state and operated by the historical commission or under the jurisdiction of the commission as authorized by § 4-11-108;
(16) Nonprofit community blood bank;
(17) Senior citizen service centers that meet the standards set by the Tennessee commission on aging and disability for eligibility to receive state funds; or
(18) Nonprofit corporation whose primary function involves the annual organization, promotion, and sponsorship of a statewide talent and beauty pageant in which contestants compete for scholarships, awarded by such nonprofit corporation, as well as for the opportunity of being Tennessee’s representative and contestant in an annual nationwide talent and beauty pageant with which such nonprofit corporation is affiliated.
(b) In addition to the exempt institutions, organizations and historical properties described in subsection (a), there are also exempt such other institutions and organizations that have received a determination of exemption from the internal revenue service under the Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3), (c)(5) labor organizations, (c)(13) not-for-profit cemetery companies, and (c)(19) (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3), (5), (13) and (19), respectively), and that are currently operating under it, and any war-time era veterans’ organization that has received a determination of exemption from the internal revenue service under the Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(4) (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(4)), and that is chartered by the United States congress. The exemption provided for herein does not apply to purchases of bingo cards or equipment by such organizations.
(c) Any exemption granted under subsection (a) or (b) shall be limited to such institutions, organizations or historical properties that are not organized or operated for profit, and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
(d) Any exemption granted under subsections (a)-(c) shall only apply to sales, gifts, or donations made directly to the exempt institution, organization or historical property. There shall be no exemption upon sales, gifts, or donations made to an independent contractor with any such exempt institution, organization or historical property.
(e) No dealer shall sell, give or donate, and no user shall use, any tangible personal property under the claim that the tangible personal property is exempt from the sales or use tax levied by this chapter, where the exemption from taxation is claimed because the vendee or user is an educational, religious or charitable institution or organization or historical property and is entitled to an exemption as such institution or organization or historical property under subsections (a)-(d), unless the vendee or user shall have issued to it by the commissioner an exemption certificate declaring that such institution or organization or historical property is entitled to the exemption provided for by subsections (a)-(d); provided, that, in the case of a sale to a person who is not a resident or domiciliary of Tennessee, an exemption certificate issued by the commissioner is not required, if the dealer shall instead receive from such person a copy of a current and valid exemption from federal taxation under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3). Persons who have obtained an exemption certificate issued by the commissioner shall provide their vendors with a copy of the certificate or a fully completed streamlined sales tax certificate of exemption, which must include the exemption account number included on the certificate issued by the commissioner. The dealer shall maintain a copy of such exemption in the dealer’s records to document that the purchaser was entitled to the exemption. In the case of a sale to a person who is not a resident or domiciliary of Tennessee, an exemption certificate issued by the commissioner is not required, if the dealer shall instead receive from such person a copy of a current and valid exemption from federal taxation under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3). The dealer shall maintain a copy of such exemption in the dealer’s records to document that the purchaser was entitled to the exemption.
(f) The commissioner is authorized to make final determination after hearing, if demanded, as to whether any institution or organization or historical property is entitled to the benefit of the exemption established by subsections (a)-(d). The commissioner is authorized to issue exemption certificates to institutions and organizations and historical properties that, in the commissioner’s judgment, are entitled thereto.
(g) No county having a metropolitan form of government is authorized under this chapter to levy any tax on the sale, purchase, use, consumption or distribution of steam and chilled water produced and distributed by an energy resource recovery facility operated in a county with a metropolitan form of government.
(h) No tax exemption as permitted by this section applies to the purchase of bingo materials or supplies or equipment or cards.
(i) There is also exempt from this chapter any sales or use tax upon tangible personal property or taxable services sold, given, or donated to any Tennessee historic property preservation or rehabilitation entity as defined in § 67-4-2004. This exemption is subject to subsections (d), (e), and (f).