Opinion ID: 2381394
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Classification of Videotech as Production House

Text: Section 144.034 exempts from taxation sales of advertising by advertising agencies and broadcast stations. The Commission found Videotech was a video production house and its tapes for LeBarge Electronics and First National Mercantile Bank and Trust Company were not exempt from sales tax. Appellant argues Videotech's functions should be classified on a transaction-by-transaction basis, contending it sometimes acted as an advertising agency, sometimes as a broadcaster, and was therefore exempt from sales tax in both functions, and was never a production house; alternatively, that Videotech should be classified as a broadcast facility or as an advertising agency, and exempt under section 144.034. Appellant is not a broadcast station. Videotech produces videotapes; it does not transmit by radio or television nor is it a facility equipped for radio and television transmission. The primary rule of statutory construction is to determine the intent of the legislature from the language used, to give effect to that intent, and to take the words of the statute in their plain and ordinary meaning. Rotary Drilling Supply, Inc. v. Director of Revenue, 662 S.W.2d 496 (Mo. banc 1983). Nor is appellant an advertising agency. Although Videotech produced some tapes used for advertising purposes, it did not contract with advertisers to place the advertising in the media. Thus, Videotech does not qualify by virtue of its business activities as an entity that can claim an exemption from sales tax on the transactions at issue. Appellant's argument that Videotech should alternatively be given exemption, transaction-by-transaction, contradicts the policy allowing the state to exempt certain entities from the payment and collection of sales tax, and is therefore untenable.