§ 67-6-233 — Taxation of the retail sale, lease, licensing or use of specified digital products or video game digital products transferred to or accessed by subscribers or consumers

(a) The retail sale, lease, licensing or use of specified digital products or video game digital products transferred to or accessed by subscribers or consumers in this state shall be subject to the tax levied by this chapter on the sales price or purchase price of the specified digital products or video game digital products at a rate equal to the rate of tax levied on the sale of tangible personal property at retail by § 67-6-202 . (b) Retail sales, leases, licensing, or use subject to tax under this section includes: (1) Specified digital products or video game digital products sold with rights of permanent use and specified digital products or video game digital products sold with rights of less than permanent use; (2) Specified digital products or video game digital products sold with rights of use conditioned upon continued payment by the subscriber or purchaser; and (3) Subscriptions to, access to or the purchase of a digital code for receiving or accessing specified digital products or video game digital products. (c) For purposes of this section, "digital code" means a code that may be obtained in a tangible form, such as a card or through email, that provides a purchaser with a right to obtain one (1) or more specified digital products or video game digital products. A digital code does not include gift certificates or gift cards that represent a monetary value that is redeemable for specified digital goods. No additional tax imposed by this chapter shall be due when the user of the digital code receives or accesses the specified digital product or video game digital product. (d) Subscriptions to satellite radio services are excluded from specified digital products or video game digital products subject to tax under this section. Also, subscriptions to data processing and information services that allow data to be generated, acquired, stored, processed or retrieved and delivered by electronic transmission to a purchaser, where the purchaser's primary purpose for the underlying transaction is the processed data or information, are excluded from specified digital products or video game digital products subject to tax under this section. (e) Retail sales subject to tax under this section shall not include retail sales that are subject to tax in accordance with any other provision of this chapter. (f) Retail sales subject to tax under this section shall not include any sale, lease, licensing or use of a specified digital product or video game digital product, if the sale, lease, license or use of the equivalent in a tangible form would be exempt as a sale for resale, sublease or subrent, including any further broadcast, distribution, license or retransmission of the digital product by a provider of video programming services, who shall not be deemed a subscriber or consumer for purposes of this section. For purposes of this section, "video programming services" means programming provided by or generally considered comparable to programming provided by a television broadcast station and shall include cable television services sold by a provider authorized pursuant to title 7, chapter 59, wireless cable television services (multipoint distribution service/multichannel multipoint distribution service) and video services provided through wireline facilities located at least in part in the public rights-of-way without regard to delivery technology, including internet protocol technology. (g) The tax imposed by this section shall apply to retail sales in this state, indicated by the residential street address or the primary business street address of the subscriber or consumer.

Legislative History

Amended by 2015 Tenn. Acts, ch. 514,s 23, eff. 7/1/2015. Acts 2008, ch. 1106, § 19.