Utah Admin. Code R865-6F-31 - Taxation of Publishing Companies Pursuant to Utah Code Ann. Sections 59-7-302 through 59-7-321
(1) Definitions.
(a) "Outer-jurisdictional property" means
certain types of tangible personal property, such as orbiting satellites,
undersea transmission cables and the like, that are owned or rented by the
taxpayer and used in the business of publishing, licensing, selling or
otherwise distributing printed material, but that are not physically located in
any particular state.
(b) "Print"
or "printed material" means the physical embodiment or printed version of any
thought or expression, including a play, story, article, column or other
literary, commercial, educational, artistic or other written or printed work.
The determination of whether an item is or consists of print or printed
material shall be made without regard to its content. Printed material may take
the form of a book, newspaper, magazine, periodical, trade journal, or any
other form of printed matter and may be contained on any medium or
property.
(c) "Purchaser" and
"subscriber" mean the individual, residence, business or other outlet that is
the ultimate or final recipient of the print or printed material. Neither term
shall mean or include a wholesaler or other distributor of print or printed
material.
(d) "Terrestrial
facility" shall include any telephone line, cable, fiber optic, microwave,
earth station, satellite dish, antennae, or other relay system or device that
is used to receive, transmit, relay or carry any data, voice, image or other
information that is transmitted from or by any outer-jurisdictional property to
the ultimate recipient thereof.
(2) When a taxpayer in the business of
publishing, selling, licensing or distributing books, newspapers, magazines,
periodicals, trade journals, or other printed material has income from sources
both within and without this state, the amount of business income from sources
within this state shall be determined pursuant to this rule. In those cases,
the first step is to determine what portion of the taxpayer's income
constitutes business income and what portion constitutes nonbusiness income.
Nonbusiness income is directly allocable to specific states and business income
is apportioned among the states in which the business is conducted and pursuant
to the property, payroll, and sales apportionment factors set forth in this
rule. The sum of the items of nonbusiness income directly allocated to this
state, plus the amount of business income apportioned to this state,
constitutes the amount of the taxpayer's entire net income subject to tax in
this state.
(3) The fraction by
which business income shall be apportioned to the state shall be determined in
accordance with rule
R865-6F-8(4)
and (7). Except as modified by this rule, the
property factor shall be determined in accordance with
R865-6F-8(8),
the payroll factor in accordance with
R865-6F-8(9),
and the sales factor in accordance with
R865-6F-8(10).
(4) All real and tangible personal property,
including outer-jurisdictional property, whether owned or rented, that is used
in the business shall be included in the denominator of the property
factor.
(5)
(a) All real and tangible personal property
owned or rented by the taxpayer and used within this state during the tax
period shall be included in the numerator of the property factor.
(b) Outer-jurisdictional property owned or
rented by the taxpayer and used in this state during the tax period shall be
included in the numerator of the property factor in the ratio that the value of
the property attributable to its use by the taxpayer in business activities
within this state bears to the value of the property attributable to its use in
the taxpayer's business activities within and without this state.
(i) The value of outer-jurisdictional
property attributed to the numerator of the property factor of this state shall
be determined by the ratio that the number of uplinks and downlinks, or
half-circuits, used during the tax period to transmit from this state and to
receive in this state any data, voice, image or other information bears to the
number of uplinks and downlinks or half-circuits used for transmissions within
and without this state.
(ii) If
information regarding uplink and downlink or half-circuit usage is not
available or if measurement of activity is not applicable to the type of
outer-jurisdictional property used by the taxpayer, the value of that property
attributed to the numerator of the property factor of this state shall be
determined by the ratio that the amount of time, in terms of hours and minutes
of use, or other measurement of use of outer-jurisdictional property that was
used during the tax period to transmit from this state and to receive within
this state any data, voice, image or other information bears to the total
amount of time or other measurement of use that was used for transmissions
within and without this state.
(iii) Outer-jurisdictional property shall be
considered to have been used by the taxpayer in its business activities within
this state when that property, wherever located, has been employed by the
taxpayer in any manner in the publishing, sale, licensing or other distribution
of books, newspapers, magazines or other printed material, and any data, voice,
image or other information is transmitted to or from this state either through
an earth station or terrestrial facility located within this state.
(A) One example of the use of
outer-jurisdictional property is when the taxpayer owns its own communications
satellite or leases the use of uplinks, downlinks or circuits or time on a
communications satellite for the purpose of sending messages to its newspaper
printing facilities or employees. The states in which any printing facility
that receives the satellite communications are located and the state from which
the communications were sent would, under this rule, apportion the cost of the
owned or rented satellite to their respective property factors based upon the
ratio of the in-state use of the satellite to its usage within and without the
state.
(B) Assume that ABC
Newspaper Co. owns a total of $400,000,000 of property and, in addition, owns
and operates a communication satellite for the purpose of sending news articles
to its printing plant in this state, as well as for communicating with its
printing plants and facilities or news bureaus, employees and agents located in
other states and throughout the world. Also assume that the total value of its
real and tangible personal property that was permanently located in this state
for the entire income year was valued at $3,000,000. Assume also that the
original cost of the satellite is $100,000,000 for the tax period and that of
the 10,000 uplinks and downlinks or half-circuits of satellite transmissions
used by the taxpayer during the tax period, 200 or 2% are attributable to its
satellite communications received in and sent from this state. Assume further
that the company's mobile property that was used partially within this state,
consisting of 40 delivery trucks, was determined to have an original cost of
$4,000,000 and was used in this state for 95 days. The total value of property
attributed to this state is determined as follows:
TABLE |
|
Value of property permanently in state = |
$3,000,000 |
Value of mobile property: 95/365 or (.260274) x $4,000,000 = |
$1,041,096 |
Value of leased satellite property used in-state: (.02) x $100,000,000 = |
$2,000,000 |
Total value of property attributable to state = |
$6,041,096 |
Total property factor percentage: $6,041,096/$500,000,000 = |
1.2082% |
(6) The payroll factor shall be determined in
accordance with Sections
59-7-315
and 59-7- 316.
(7) The denominator
of the sales factor shall include the total gross receipts derived by the
taxpayer from transactions and activity in the regular course of its trade or
business, except receipts that may be excluded under
R865-6F-8(11)(c).
(8) The numerator of the sales factor shall
include all gross receipts of the taxpayer from sources within this state,
including the following:
(a) Gross receipts
derived from the sale of tangible personal property, including printed
materials, delivered or shipped to a purchaser or a subscriber in this state;
and
(b) Except as provided in
Subsection (8)(b)(ii), gross receipts derived from advertising and the sale,
rental, or other use of the taxpayer's customer lists or any portion thereof
shall be attributed to this state as determined by the taxpayer's circulation
factor during the tax period. The circulation factor shall be determined for
each publication of printed material containing advertising and shall be equal
to the ratio that the taxpayer's in-state circulation to purchasers and
subscribers of its printed material bears to its circulation to purchasers and
subscribers within and without the state.
(i)
The circulation factor for an individual publication shall be determined by
reference to the rating statistics as reflected in such sources as Audit Bureau
of Circulations or other comparable sources, provided that the source selected
is consistently used from year to year for that purpose. If none of the
foregoing sources are available, or, if available, not in form or content
sufficient for these purposes, the circulation factor shall be determined from
the taxpayer's books and records.
(ii) When specific items of advertisements
can be shown, upon clear and convincing evidence, to have been distributed
solely to a limited regional or local geographic area in which this state is
located, the taxpayer may petition, or the commission may require, that a
portion of those receipts be attributed to the sales factor numerator of this
state on the basis of a regional or local geographic area circulation factor
and not upon the basis of the circulation factor provided by Subsection
(8)(b)(i). This attribution shall be based upon the ratio that the taxpayer's
circulation to purchasers and subscribers located in this state of the printed
material containing specific items of advertising bears to its total
circulation of printed material to purchasers and subscribers located within
the regional or local geographic area. This alternative attribution method
shall be permitted only upon the condition that receipts are not double counted
or otherwise included in the numerator of any other state.
(iii) If the purchaser or subscriber is the
United States government or if the taxpayer is not taxable in a state, the
gross receipts from all sources, including the receipts from the sale of
printed material, from advertising, and from the sale, rental or other use of
the taxpayer's customer lists, or any portion thereof that would have been
attributed by the circulation factor to the numerator of the sales factor for
that state, shall be included in the numerator of the sales factor of this
state if the printed material or other property is shipped from an office,
store, warehouse, factory, or other place of storage or business in this
state.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.