Section 320.115  Jurisdictional Questions

a)         Mere Solicitation of Orders not Doing Business

1)         For a seller to incur Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax liability in the metropolitan region, the sale must be made in the course of such seller's engaging in the retail business within the metropolitan region.  In other words, enough of the selling activity must occur within the metropolitan region to justify concluding that the seller is engaged in business within the metropolitan region with respect to that sale.  The same principles are applicable as to determining in which county of the metropolitan region a sale is made.

2)         For example, the Supreme Court has held the mere solicitation and receipt of orders within a taxing jurisdiction (the State), where such orders were subject to acceptance outside the taxing jurisdiction and title passed outside such jurisdiction, with the goods being shipped from outside such jurisdiction to the purchaser in such jurisdiction, did not constitute engaging in the business of selling within such jurisdiction.  This conclusion was reached independently of any question of interstate commerce and so would apply to a county as the taxing jurisdiction as much as to the State as the taxing jurisdiction.

b)         Seller's Acceptance of Order

1)         Without attempting to anticipate every kind of fact situation that may arise in this connection, it is the Department's opinion, in general, that the seller's acceptance of the purchase order or other contracting action in the making of the sales contract is the most important single factor in the occupation of selling.  If the purchase order is accepted at the seller's place of business within the metropolitan region or by someone who is working out of such place of business and who does not conduct the business of selling elsewhere within the meaning of subsections (f) and (g) of this Section, or if a purchase order which is an acceptance of the seller's complete and unconditional offer to sell is received by the seller's place of business within the metropolitan region or by someone working out of such place of business, the seller incurs Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax liability in the metropolitan region if the sale is at retail and the purchaser receives the physical possession of the property in Illinois.

2)         The Department will assume that the seller has accepted the purchase order at the place of business at which the seller receives such purchase order from the purchaser in the absence of clear proof to the contrary.

3)         If a purchase order is accepted outside this State, but the tangible personal property which is sold is in an inventory of the retailer located within the metropolitan region at the time of its sale (or is subsequently produced in the region), then delivered in Illinois to the purchaser, the seller will be considered to be engaged in business in the metropolitan region for Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax purposes with respect to such sale.  The county in the region where the property is located at the time of sale (or subsequent production in a county in the metropolitan region) is determinative of the applicable Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax rate.

c)         Some Considerations Which Are Not Controlling

1)         Delivery of the property within the metropolitan region to the purchaser is not necessary for the seller to incur Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax liability.  It is sufficient that the purchaser receives the physical possession of the property somewhere in Illinois as far as the question of delivery is concerned.  This is true because there is no exemption for intercity commerce comparable to the exemption arising from interstate commerce, and it is not necessary for delivery to be completed within the metropolitan region for the seller to be regarded as being engaged in the business of selling within the metropolitan region with respect to that sale.

2)         The point at which the tangible personal property will be used or consumed and the place at which the purchaser resides are also immaterial in determining whether or not the seller incurs Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax liability.  Furthermore, the place at which the technical sale occurs (i.e., the place at which title passes) is not a decisive consideration since the phrase "in the metropolitan region" in Section 4.03(e) of the Regional Transportation Authority Act [70 ILCS 3615/4.03(e)] refers only to the location of the occupation of selling that is being taxed and not to the place where sales may be made. (See Standard Oil Company v. Department of Finance, et al., 383 Ill. 136 (1934), for a similar problem under the Illinois Retailers' Occupation Tax Act.)

d)         Place of Business where Long Term or Blanket Contracts are Involved

            Under a long term blanket or master contract which (though definite as to price and quantity) must be implemented by the purchaser's placing of specific orders when goods are wanted, the seller's place of business with which such subsequent specific orders are placed (rather than the place where the seller signed the master contract) will determine where the seller is engaged in business for Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax purposes with respect to such orders.

e)         Sales Through Vending Machines

            The seller's place of engaging in business when making sales through a vending machine is the place where the vending machine is located when such sales are made.

f)          Sales from Vehicles Carrying Uncommitted Stock of Goods

            The seller's place of engaging in business when making sales and deliveries (not just deliveries pursuant to previously accepted orders, but actual sales and deliveries) from a vehicle in which a stock of goods is being carried for sale is the place at which such sales and deliveries happen to be made – the vehicle carrying such stock of goods for sale being regarded as a portable place of business.

g)         Sales of Coal or other Minerals

1)         For the purpose of determining whether the Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax is applicable for a retail sale by a producer of coal or other mineral mined in Illinois, the sale is a sale at retail at the place where the coal or other mineral mined in Illinois is extracted from the earth.

2)         A retail sale is a sale to a user, such as a railroad, public utility or other industrial company for use. "Mineral" includes not only coal, but also oil, sand, stone taken from a quarry, gravel and any other thing commonly regarded as a mineral and extracted from the earth.  For purposes of this Section, "extracted from the earth" means the location at which the coal or other mineral is extracted from the mouth of the mine.

3)         A mineral mined in Illinois, but shipped out of Illinois by the seller for use outside Illinois, will generally be tax exempt under the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution (i.e., as a sale in interstate commerce). This exemption does not extend, however, to sales to carriers, other than common carriers by rail or motor, for their own use outside Illinois if the purchasing carrier takes delivery of the property in the metropolitan region and transports it over its own line to an out-of-State destination.

4)         A sale by a mineral producer to a wholesaler or retailer for resale would not be a retail sale by the producer and so would not be taxable.  The taxable sale (the retail sale) is the final sale to the user and the Regional Transportation Authority Retailers' Occupation Tax on that sale will be applicable if the retailer is located in the metropolitan region.

(Source:  Amended at 24 Ill. Reg. 18370, effective December 1, 2000)