January 25, 1957
Hon. R. 0. Burleson Opinion No. WW-8
County Attorney
Burne t County Re: Liability of a volunteer
Burnet, Texas fire department for
payment of sales tax on
motor vehicle to be wed
Dear Mr. Burleson: as a fire truck.
Your letter requesting our opinion in reference to the
captioned matter reads, in part, as follows:
“The Burnet Voluntary Fire Department, Inc.,
a non-profit organization and a department of the
city bf Burnet in which said city of Burnet a
tax exempt, governmental subdivision has purchased
the cab and chasis of a Ford Truck from Pressley
Motor Co. of Burnet, Texas. On this truck they
have installed a pump tank hose and other
necessary fire fighting equipment; which equipment
was purchased at San Antonio, Texas.
“I would like an opinion from your office as to
whether or not the Assessor and Collector of Burnet
County, Texas must charge a sales tax on the vehicle
purchased.
“I feel sure that the sales tax is not chargeable
for the equipment purchased at another place and
mounted at a later date. If this is an error also
please advise.”
Section l(a) of Article 7047k, Vernon’s Civil Statutes,
reads as follows:
“There is hereby levied a tax upon every retail
sale of every motor vehicle sold in this State, such
tax to be equal to 1.1% of the total consideration
paid or to be paid to the seller by the buyer, which
consideration shall include the amount paid or to be
paid for said motor vehicle and all accessories
attached thereto at the time of the sale, whether
such consideration be in the nature of cash, credit,
or exchange of other property, or a combination of
these. In the event the consideration received by
Hon. R. 0. Burleson, page 2 (WW-8)
the seller includes any tax imposed by the
Federal Government, then such Federal tax
shall be deducted from such consideration
for the purpose of computing the amount
of tax levied by this Article upon such
retaiI sale.’
You will note that Article 7047k does not contain any exemptions.
It is therefore our opinion that the Burnet Volunteer
Fire Department, a private non-profit corporation, is subject
to the payment of the motor vehicle sales tax. As Article 7047k
only levies a tax upon sales of motor vehicles, the fire depart-
ment is not subject to a tax on the purchase of fire-fighting
equipment to install on the fire truck.
SUMMARY
“A voluntary fire department, in purchasing
a truck to be used as a fire truck, is
subject to pay the motor vehicle sales tax
levied by Article 7047k, V.C.S. A fire
department is not subject to such tax on
the purchase of fire-fighting equipment to
install on a fire truck. u
Yours very truly,
WILL WILSON
Attorney General of Texas
r W. V. Geppert
WVG:cs Assistant
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
H. Grady Chandler, Chairman