§ 68-1359 — Exemptions – Manufacturing.

There are hereby specifically exempted from the tax levied by Section 1350 et seq. of this title: 1. Sales of goods, wares, merchandise, tangible personal property, machinery and equipment to a manufacturer for use in a manufacturing operation. Goods, wares, merchandise, property, machinery and equipment used in a nonmanufacturing activity or process as set forth in paragraph 14 of Section 1352 of this title shall not be eligible for the exemption provided for in this subsection by virtue of the activity or process being performed in conjunction with or integrated into a manufacturing operation. For the purposes of this paragraph, sales made to any person, firm or entity that has entered into a contractual relationship for the construction and improvement of manufacturing goods, wares, merchandise, property, machinery and equipment for use in a manufacturing operation shall be considered sales made to a manufacturer which is defined or classified in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Manual under Industry Group No. 324110. Such purchase shall be evidenced by a copy of the sales ticket or invoice to be retained by the vendor indicating that the purchases are made for and on behalf of such manufacturer and set out the name of such manufacturer as well as include a copy of the Manufacturing Exemption Permit of the manufacturer. Any person who wrongfully or erroneously certifies that purchases are being made on behalf of such manufacturer or who otherwise violates this paragraph shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined an amount equal to double the amount of sales tax involved or incarcerated for not more than sixty (60) days or both; 2. Ethyl alcohol when sold and used for the purpose of blending same with motor fuel on which motor fuel tax is levied by Section 500.4 of this title; 3. Sales of containers when sold to a person regularly engaged in the business of reselling empty or filled containers or when purchased for the purpose of packaging raw products of farm, garden, or orchard for resale to the consumer or processor. This exemption shall not apply to the sale of any containers used more than once and which are ordinarily known as returnable containers, except returnable soft drink bottles and the cartons, crates, pallets, and containers used to transport returnable soft drink bottles. Each and every transfer of title or possession of such returnable containers in this state to any person who is not regularly engaged in the business of selling, reselling or otherwise transferring empty or filled containers shall be taxable under this Code. Additionally, this exemption shall not apply to the sale of labels or other materials delivered along with items sold but which are not necessary or absolutely essential to the sale of the sold merchandise; 4. Sales of or transfers of title to or possession of any containers used or to be used more than once and which are ordinarily known as returnable containers and which do or will contain beverages or water for human consumption and the cartons, crates, pallets, and containers used to transport such returnable containers; 5. Sale of tangible personal property when sold by the manufacturer to a person who transports it to a state other than Oklahoma for immediate and exclusive use in a state other than Oklahoma. Provided, no sales at a retail outlet shall qualify for the exemption under this paragraph; 6. Machinery, equipment, fuels and chemicals or other materials incorporated into and directly used or consumed in the process of treatment to substantially reduce the volume or harmful properties of hazardous waste at treatment facilities specifically permitted pursuant to the Oklahoma Hazardous Waste Management Act and operated at the place of waste generation, or facilities approved by the Department of Environmental Quality for the cleanup of a site of contamination. The term "hazardous" waste may include low-level radioactive waste for the purpose of this paragraph; 7. Except as otherwise provided by subsection I of Section 3658 of this title pursuant to which the exemption authorized by this paragraph may not be claimed, sales of tangible personal property to a qualified manufacturer or distributor to be consumed or incorporated in a new manufacturing or distribution facility or to expand an existing manufacturing or distribution facility. For purposes of this paragraph, sales made to a contractor or subcontractor that has previously entered into a contractual relationship with a qualified manufacturer or distributor for construction or expansion of a manufacturing or distribution facility shall be considered sales made to a qualified manufacturer or distributor. For the purposes of this paragraph, "qualified manufacturer or distributor" means: a. any manufacturing enterprise whose total cost of construction of a new or expanded facility exceeds the sum of Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000.00) and in which at least one hundred (100) new full-time- equivalent employees, as certified by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, are added and maintained for a period of at least thirty-six (36) months as a direct result of the new or expanded facility, b. any manufacturing enterprise whose total cost of construction of a new or expanded facility exceeds the sum of Ten Million Dollars ($10,000,000.00) and the combined cost of construction material, machinery, equipment and other tangible personal property exempt from sales tax under the provisions of this paragraph exceeds the sum of Fifty Million Dollars ($50,000,000.00) and in which at least seventy-five (75) new full-time-equivalent employees, as certified by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, are added and maintained for a period of at least thirty- six (36) months as a direct result of the new or expanded facility, c. any manufacturing enterprise whose total cost of construction of an expanded facility exceeds the sum of Three Hundred Million Dollars ($300,000,000.00) and in which the manufacturer has and maintains an average employment level of at least one thousand seven hundred fifty (1,750) full-time-equivalent employees, as certified by the Employment Security Commission, or d. any enterprise primarily engaged in the general wholesale distribution of groceries defined or classified in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Manual under Industry Groups No. 4244 and 4245 and which has at least seventy-five percent (75%) of its total sales to in- state customers or buyers and whose total cost of construction of a new or expanded facility exceeds the sum of Forty Million Dollars ($40,000,000.00) with such construction commencing on or after July 1, 2005, and before December 31, 2005, and which at least fifty new full-time-equivalent employees, as certified by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, are added and maintained for a period of at least thirty-six (36) months as a direct result of the new or expanded facility. For purposes of this paragraph, the total cost of construction shall include building and construction material and engineering and architectural fees or charges directly associated with the construction of a new or expanded facility. The total cost of construction shall not include attorney fees. For purposes of subparagraph c of this paragraph, the total cost of construction shall also include the cost of qualified depreciable property as defined in Section 2357.4 of this title and labor services performed in the construction of an expanded facility. For the purpose of subparagraph d of this paragraph, the total cost of construction shall also include the cost of all parking, security and dock structures or facilities necessary to manage, process or secure vehicles used to receive and/or distribute groceries through such a facility. The employment requirement of this paragraph can be satisfied by the employment of a portion of the required number of new full-time-equivalent employees at a manufacturing or distribution facility that is related to or supported by the new or expanded manufacturing or distribution facility as long as both facilities are owned by one person or business entity. For purposes of this section, "manufacturing facility" shall mean building and land improvements used in manufacturing as defined in Section 1352 of this title and shall also mean building and land improvements used for the purpose of packing, repackaging, labeling or assembling for distribution to market, products at least seventy percent (70%) of which are made in Oklahoma by the same company but at an off- site, in-state manufacturing or distribution facility or facilities. It shall not include a retail outlet unless the retail outlet is operated in conjunction with and on the same site or premises as the manufacturing facility. Up to ten percent (10%) of the square feet of a manufacturing or distribution facility building may be devoted to office space used to provide clerical support for the manufacturing operation. Such ten percent (10%) may be in a separate building as long as it is part of the same contiguous tract of property on which the manufacturing or distribution facility is located. Only sales of tangible personal property made after June 1, 1988, shall be eligible for the exemption provided by this paragraph. The exemption authorized pursuant to subparagraph d of this paragraph shall only become effective when the governing body of the municipality in which the enterprise is located approves a resolution expressing the municipality's support for the construction for such new or expanded facility. Upon approval by the municipality, the municipality shall forward a copy of such resolution to the Oklahoma Tax Commission; 8. Sales of tangible personal property purchased and used by a licensed radio or television station in broadcasting. This exemption shall not apply unless such machinery and equipment is used directly in the manufacturing process, is necessary for the proper production of a broadcast signal or is such that the failure of the machinery or equipment to operate would cause broadcasting to cease. This exemption begins with the equipment used in producing live programming or the electronic equipment directly behind the satellite receiving dish or antenna, and ends with the transmission of the broadcast signal from the broadcast antenna system. For purposes of this paragraph, "proper production" shall include, but not be limited to, machinery or equipment required by Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations; 9. Sales of tangible personal property purchased or used by a licensed cable television operator in cablecasting. This exemption shall not apply unless such machinery and equipment is used directly in the manufacturing process, is necessary for the proper production of a cablecast signal or is such that the failure of the machinery or equipment to operate would cause cablecasting to cease. This exemption begins with the equipment used in producing local programming or the electronic equipment behind the satellite receiving dish, microwave tower or antenna, and ends with the transmission of the signal from the cablecast head-end system. For purposes of this paragraph, "proper production" shall include, but not be limited to, machinery or equipment required by Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations; 10. Sales of packaging materials for use in packing, shipping or delivering tangible personal property for sale when sold to a producer of agricultural products. This exemption shall not apply to the sale of any packaging material which is ordinarily known as a returnable container; 11. Sales of any pattern used in the process of manufacturing iron, steel or other metal castings. The exemption provided by this paragraph shall be applicable irrespective of ownership of the pattern provided that such pattern is used in the commercial production of metal castings; 12. Deposits or other charges made and which are subsequently refunded for returnable cartons, crates, pallets, and containers used to transport cement and cement products; 13. Beginning January 1, 1998, machinery, electricity, fuels, explosives and materials, excluding chemicals, used in the mining of coal in this state; 14. Deposits, rent or other charges made for returnable cartons, crates, pallets, and containers used to transport mushrooms or mushroom products from a farm for resale to the consumer or processor; 15. Sales of tangible personal property and services used or consumed in all phases of the extraction and manufacturing of crushed stone and sand, including but not limited to site preparation, dredging, overburden removal, explosive placement and detonation, onsite material hauling and/or transfer, material washing, screening and/or crushing, product weighing and site reclamation; 16. Sale, use or consumption of paper stock and other raw materials which are manufactured into commercial printed material in this state primarily for use and delivery outside this state. For the purposes of this section, "commercial printed material" shall include magazines, catalogs, retail inserts and direct mail; and 17. Beginning on the effective date of this act and ending on December 31, 2029, sales of machinery and equipment, including but not limited to, servers and computers, racks, power distribution units, cabling, switchgear, transformers, substations, software, and network equipment, and electricity used for commercial mining of digital assets purposes in a colocation facility. For purposes of this paragraph: a. "blockchain technology" means shared or distributed data structures or digital ledgers governed by consensus protocols and maintained by peer-to-peer networks that: (1) Store digital transactions, and (2) Verify and secure transactions cryptographically, b. "colocation facility" means a facility or facilities located in this state and utilized in the commercial mining of digital assets or in hosting persons engaged in the commercial mining of digital assets through utilization of the facility's infrastructure, including servers and network hardware powered by Internet bandwidth, electricity, and other services generally required for such mining operations. Provided, no facility shall qualify as a "colocation facility" unless the facility has entered into a load reduction agreement, c. "commercial mining of digital assets" means the process through which blockchain technology is used to mine digital assets at a colocation facility, d. "digital assets" means a type of virtual currency that utilizes blockchain technology and that: (1) can be digitally traded between users, or (2) can be converted or exchanged for legal tender, and e. "load reduction agreement" means an agreement between the customer and the local electric cooperative, municipality, electric utility, or market operator to temporarily reduce or curtail the customer's use of electric power in order to respond to inclement weather or other adverse conditions, f. "mine" or "mining" means the process through which blockchain transactions are verified and accepted by adding the transactions to a blockchain ledger, which involves solving complex and mathematical cryptographic problems associated with a block containing transaction data.

Legislative History

Added by Laws 1981, c. 313, § 2, emerg. eff. June 29, 1981. Amended by Laws 1983, c. 275, § 8, emerg. eff. June 24, 1983; Laws 1987, c. 203, § 154, operative July 1, 1987; Laws 1988, c. 9, § 1, operative June 1, 1988; Laws 1988, c. 37, § 1, operative July 1, 1988; Laws 1990, c. 280, § 3, emerg. eff. May 25, 1990; Laws 1991, c. 133, § 1, emerg. eff. April 29, 1991; Laws 1991, c. 191, § 1, emerg. eff. May 15, 1991; Laws 1991, c. 342, § 17, emerg. eff. June 15, 1991; Laws 1992, c. 189, § 1, emerg. eff. May 8, 1992; Laws 1992, c. 403, § 44, eff. Sept. 1, 1992; Laws 1993, c. 10, § 11, emerg. eff. March 21, 1993; Laws 1994, c. 120, § 1, emerg. eff. April 28, 1994; Laws 1994, c. 278, § 16, eff. Sept. 1, 1994; Laws 1995, c. 349, § 5, emerg. eff. June 9, 1995; Laws 1996, c. 3, § 14, emerg. eff. March 6, 1996; Laws 1996, c. 289, § 5, eff. July 1, 1996; Laws 1997, c. 294, § 18, eff. July 1, 1997; Laws 1997, c. 390, § 5, eff. July 1, 1997; Laws 1998, c. 301, § 7, eff. Nov. 1, 1998; Laws 2000, c. 3, § 1, emerg. eff. March 2, 2000; Laws 2000, c. 314, § 16, eff. July 1, 2000; Laws 2001, c. 5, § 39, emerg. eff. March 21, 2001; Laws 2002, c. 299, § 12, emerg. eff. May 23, 2002; Laws 2003, c. 472, § 15; Laws 2005, c. 413, § 1, eff. July 1, 2005; Laws 2006, c. 327, § 5, eff. July 1, 2006; Laws 2006, 2nd Ex. Sess., c. 44, § 8, eff. July 1, 2007; Laws 2011, c. 358, § 1; Laws 2013, c. 334, § 4, eff. July 1, 2013; Laws 2016, c. 317, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2016; Laws 2024, c. 380, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2024. NOTE: Laws 1992, c. 225, § 1 repealed by Laws 1993, c. 10, § 16, emerg. eff. March 21, 1993. Laws 1995, c. 285, § 20 repealed by Laws 1996, c. 3, § 25, emerg. eff. March 6, 1996. Laws 2000, c. 273, § 1 repealed by Laws 2001, c. 5, § 40, emerg. eff. March 21, 2001.