When you think of services, the obvious thought is that a service cannot be taxable because there was no change of title of a tangible item. However, that is not always the case in Tennessee.
Services specified in the law that are subject to sales tax in Tennessee include:
Rental of rooms, lodging, or other accommodations for less than 90 consecutive days by people in the business of providing overnight lodging services
Providing parking or storing of motor vehicles in a parking garage or parking lot
Providing repair of tangible personal property and computer software, including situations where no new parts are provided or when the customer furnishes the parts
Laundering or cleaning any kind of tangible personal property
Installing tangible personal property that remains tangible property after installation, including stand-alone installation services where installer did not sell the property installed (the installation of tangible property that becomes a part of realty when installed is not taxable)
Installation of computer software
Enriching of uranium materials or compounds
Providing short-term rental of space to a dealer for making sales (e.g., booth rental)
Furnishing intrastate, interstate and international telecommunications services
Sales of prepaid calling cards, prepaid phones and long distance calling cards
Ancillary services (i.e., services associated with telecommunications, such as call waiting & forwarding, caller ID, voice mail and conference bridging)
Video programming services (i.e., cable and wireless cable and broadband television services)
Direct-to-home satellite television services
Sales tax also applies where the charges for the services are considered part of the sales price of a taxable good or service. The fact that they are listed separately, does not negate sales tax. Delivery charges, labor and service cost, and services necessary to complete the sale furnished by a seller of a taxable good or service are part of the sales price of the taxable good or service.
