Pursuant to the authority provided in Ark. Code Ann. &
19-1-208 (1987), Ark. Code Ann.
& 26-18-301 (1987) and Ark. Code
Ann. &
25-15-201, et seq. (1987) (the
Arkansas Administrative Procedures Act), the Director of the Arkansas
Department of Finance and Administration and the Commissioner of Revenue for
the State of Arkansas do hereby promulgate the following Regulation. This
Regulation is to be read in conjunction with the previous Regulations of the
Department of Finance and Administration ("Department") and laws of this
State.
"
GR56.2 A. Machinery and
equipment used directly in the manufacturing of a printed newspaper by
newspaper publishers and printers will be exempt from the tax, In all events,
the mashinary and equipment purchased exempt from the tax and used for
manufacture of a printed newspaper must comply with the requirements of GR-55.
B. "Newspaper" is defined to mean, a stated
short interval publication usually daily or weekly in sheet form customarily
printed on newsprint consisting of news, editorials, feature articles, and
advertising intended for general circulation.
C. The manufacturing process of printed
newspapers begins for purpose of this tax exemption when words are put into a
network with typesetting and involves all the intermediate processes including
actual printing of the paper and the assembling of the completed sections ready
for single copy sale of a new edition. The process begins with typesetting
which includes what is known in the newspaper trade as a "front-end system".
The manufacturing process continues through the composition of type for news
stories and advertising, pasting up of stories, photographs, headlines, the
necessary camera work attendant to screening half tones, other illustrations,
the enlargement or reduction of all elements and includes the assembly process
completed either manually or electronically, the plate-making process involving
producing full-page size negatives, the making of the offset plate or blanket
and the printing of the paper. The manufacturing process is complete when the
newspaper is fully assembled. This requires either hand inserting of the
separate sections making up the complete newspaper or the use of automated
inserting systems. Manufacturing includes sub-assembly work leading to
completion of the finished newspaper. Machinery and equipment used in the post
manufacturing elements are subject to taxation.
D. Items such as computers, digital cameras,
scanners, video display terminals computer hardware, printing presses, copiers,
pasteup flats, waxing machines, bundle-tying machines and other machinery and
equipment used directly in the above described manufacturing process of
printing a newspaper and which otherwise comply with the requirements of GR-55
are not subject to tax.
E. Items
such as repair or replacement parts, tools, supplies and other consumable parts
and supplies are not exempt from the tax."
