Tax Type
Retail Sales and Use Tax
Description
Vault and lawn crypt sales by cemetery
Topic
Taxability of Persons and Transactions
Date Issued
10-24-1988
October 24, 1988
Re: §58.1-1821 Application: Retail Sales and Use Tax
Dear********************
This will reply to your letter of August 3, 1988, seeking the correction of an assessment issued in the above referenced case for the period February 1983, through January 1986.
FACTS
************* ("The Taxpayer") is a cemetery operator which engages in the sale of vaults, lawn crypts, and other related items. In this connection, the Taxpayer was audited and held liable for failure to collect and remit sales tax on sales of vaults and lawn crypts. Vaults are burial receptacles constructed with concrete or steel or any other material to receive caskets. Lawn crypts are similar to vaults but also provide additional features not available in vaults, such as modifications for the improvement of drainage.The Taxpayer protests the assessment contending that vaults and lawn crypts are items of real property not subject to the tax.
DETERMINATION
§1-19 of the 1979 Virginia Retail Sales and Use Tax Regulations states that "[t]he tax applies to all sales of tangible personal property by cemeteries and crematoriums, including boxes, urns, markers, vases and flowers." (Emphasis added). §630-10-19 of the Virginia Retail Sales and Use Tax Regulations, adopted on 1/1/85, is virtually identical to the 1979 regulation, except that it expands the examples of taxable tangible personal property and nontaxable real property.
§630-10-19 states that "[t]he tax applies to all sales of tangible personal property by cemeteries and crematoriums, including boxes, urns, markers, vases, flowers, vaults, and lawn crypts. (Emphasis added). The addition of vaults and lawn crypts to the 1985 regulation was consistent with long-standing departmental policy.
Furthermore, Va. Code §57-39.8, et seq., ( "Pre-Need Burial Contracts - Consumer Protection"), enacted in 1975, which governs businesses such as the Taxpayers, clearly supports departmental policy by defining vaults and lawn crypts as "personal property."
Based on the foregoing, I find no basis for correction of the instant assessment. However, collection action will be suspended for a period of 30 days in the event that the Taxpayer desires a meeting or wishes to submit an offer in compromise under Va. Code §58.1-105,. Absent a response within this period, the assessment will become due and payable in full.
If you have any further questions, please contact us.
Sincerely,
W. H. Forst
Tax Commissioner
Rulings of the Tax Commissioner