Statutory Exemptions for Certain Sales

Connecticut General Statutes, Chapter 219, Sales and Use Taxes, imposes the Connecticut sales and use tax on the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property at retail, from the rental or leasing of tangible personal property, and on the gross receipts from the rendering of certain services.

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-412 provides for various exemptions from the sales and use taxes. The following is a list of certain exemptions that are provided under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-412. If an exemption certificate is required, it is noted below. For a complete list of sales exempt from Connecticut sales and use taxes, refer to the Connecticut General Statutes.

• Agricultural exemption for items sold exclusively for use in agricultural production: The purchaser must have a current Farmer Tax Exemption Permit issued for a two-year period by DRS and should provide you with a copy of the permit for your records.
• Aircraft: See Motor vehicles, aircraft, and vessels below.
• Biotechnology industry: Machinery, equipment, tools, materials, supplies, and fuel used in the biotechnology industry. The purchaser must complete CERT-129, Exemption for Items Used Directly in the Biotechnology Industry.
• Audio or video production or broadcasting: Filmed and taped television and radio programs and any materials becoming part of films or tapes broadcast to the general public or used for medical or surgical training; motion picture or video production equipment or sound recording equipment purchased or leased for production activities relating to master tapes, records, or films produced for commercial entertainment, advertising, or educational purposes; and certain equipment used by television and radio stations.
• Bicycle helmets
• Breast pumps and breast pump collection and storage supplies, when sold to an individual for home use, and repair or replacement parts for and repair services rendered to such breast pumps.
• Child car seats
• Commercial fishing

1. Materials, rope, fishing nets, tools, and fuel or any substitute, used directly in the commercial fishing industry.
2. Commercial fishing vessels and machinery or equipment for use on the vessels. The purchaser must have a current Commercial Fisherman Exemption Permit, issued for a two-year period by DRS.

• College textbooks: Sales of college textbooks to full and part-time students enrolled at institutions of higher education or private career schools authorized pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10a-22a to 10a-22o, inclusive, provided the student presents a valid student identification card.
• Current United States and Connecticut flags
• Firearm safety devices: Firearm safety devices include safes, lock boxes, trigger and barrel locks and other items designed to enhance home firearm safety.

• Food products for human consumption

  1. The exemption does not include meals, carbonated beverages, candy, and alcoholic beverages. The exemption does include sales of candy, confectionery, and nonalcoholic beverages in schools and sales of candy, confectionery, beverages, and other items to persons in health care facilities.

  Also exempt are:

  2. Food products, including meals, sold through coin-operated vending machines.
  3. Meals delivered to persons who are sixty years of age or older, have physical disabilities or are otherwise homebound.
  4. Purchases made with supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits.
  5. Vegetable seeds suitable for planting to produce food for human consumption.

• Fuel specifically listed below
  1. Aviation fuel.
  2. Diesel fuel to be used exclusively in portable power system generators larger than 150 kilowatts.
  3. Marine fuel (except for dyed diesel fuel sold by licensed marine dock owners or operators exclusively for marine purposes, which is taxable at 2.99%).
  4. Motor vehicle fuel.
  5. Fuel for heating purposes is exempt when used in:

1. Residential dwellings; or
2. Any metered building, location, or premises used directly in agricultural production or the fabrication of a finished product to be sold; or
3. An industrial manufacturing plant provided that not less than 75% of the fuel used in the metered building, location, or premises is used for production, fabrication, or manufacturing. The purchaser must complete CERT-115, Exempt Purchases of Gas, Electricity, and Heating Fuel.

• Magazines by subscription, including publications that only contain puzzles
• Manufacturing, fabricating, and processing:
  1. Machinery used in manufacturing, and repair, replacement, component, and enhancement parts for the machinery. The purchaser must complete CERT-101, Machinery, Component Parts, and Replacement and Repair Parts of Machinery Used Directly in a Manufacturing Process.
  2. Component parts for the assembly of manufacturing machinery. The purchaser must complete CERT-101.
  3. Materials, tools, and fuel. The purchaser must complete CERT-100, Materials, Tools, and Fuel.
  4. Partial exemption for materials, tools, fuels, machinery, and equipment used in manufacturing (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12‑412i). The purchaser must complete CERT-108, Partial Exemption of Materials, Tools, and Fuels, or CERT-109, Partial Exemption for Machinery, Equipment, or Repair and Replacement Parts.
  5. Certain calibration services for manufacturing machinery, equipment, or instrumentation.

• Medical goods and equipment
  1. Prescription medicines, syringes, and needles.
  2. Nonprescription drugs and medicines: Vitamin or mineral concentrates; dietary supplements; natural or herbal drugs or medicines; products intended to be taken for coughs, cold, asthma or allergies, or antihistamines; laxatives; antidiarrheal medicines; analgesics; antibiotic, antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal medicines; antiseptics; astringents; anesthetics; steroidal medicines; anthelmintics; emetics and antiemetics; antacids; any medication prepared to be used in the eyes, ears or nose; and cannabis sold for palliative use under the provisions of chapter 420f.
  3. Oxygen, blood, or blood plasma for medical use in humans or animals.
  4. Artificial devices individually designed, constructed or altered solely for the use of a particular person with a physical disability so as to become a brace, support, supplement, correction or substitute for the bodily structure, including the extremities of the individual, and repair or replacement parts and repair services to such property.
  5. Artificial limbs, artificial eyes and other equipment worn as a correction or substitute for any functioning portion of the body and repair or replacement parts and repair services to such property.
  6. Hearing aids, canes, crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs and repair services to these items.
  7. Vital life support equipment including oxygen supply equipment used for humans or animals, kidney dialysis machines, apnea monitors, and repair or replacement parts and repair services to these items.
  8. Custom-made wigs or hairpieces for persons with medically diagnosed total and permanent hair loss from disease or the treatment of disease.
  9. Support hose specially designed to aid in the circulation of blood, purchased by persons with medical need for the hose.
  10. Closed circuit television equipment used as reading aids by persons who are visually impaired and repair or replacement parts and repair services to such equipment.
  11. Diabetic supplies (test strips and tablets, lancets, and glucose monitoring equipment including repair or replacement parts for such equipment whether purchased separately or with the item).
  12. Telephone equipment designed exclusively for deaf or blind persons.
  13. Disposable pads used for incontinency (adult diapers and underpads).
  14. Inclined stairway chairlifts for persons with physical disabilities; repair, replacement, and enhancement parts; and repair services for the chairlifts.
  15. Disposable or reusable diapers.
  16. Menstrual products.

• Motor vehicles, aircraft, and vessels

1. Flyable aircraft sold by a manufacturer of aircraft located in this state to certificated or licensed carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce or to nonresidents for use exclusively outside Connecticut. Purchasers must complete Affidavit SUT-16a-3, which can be found in Conn. Agencies Regs. § 12-426-16a.
2. Aircraft having a maximum certificated takeoff weight of 6,000 pounds or more.
3. Repair or replacement parts exclusively for use in aircraft and aircraft repair services. The purchaser must complete CERT-110, Aircraft Repair Services - Aircraft Repair and Replacement Parts.
4. Motor vehicles purchased but not registered in this state by persons who are nonresidents and do not maintain a permanent place of abode in Connecticut. The purchaser must complete CERT-125, Sales and Use Tax Exemption for a Motor Vehicle Purchased by a Nonresident of Connecticut.
5. Commercial trucks, truck tractors, tractors, semitrailers, and vehicles used in combination with commercial trucks, truck tractors, tractors, and semitrailers that have a gross vehicle weight rating in excess of 26,000 pounds; or are operated actively and exclusively during the one-year period beginning on the date of purchase for the carriage of interstate freight under a certificate or permit issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission or its successor agency.
6. Special equipment installed in motor vehicles for the exclusive use of a person with physical disabilities, including repair, replacement, and enhancement parts whether purchased separately or with the item. When a motor vehicle in which special equipment has previously been installed for the use of a person with physical disabilities is sold for use by such a person, the sales and use tax is due on the total purchase price of the vehicle less the portion of the price attributable to the special equipment.
7. Commercial fishing vessels and machinery or equipment for use on the vessels.
8. Property tax payments under motor vehicle leases (but only if separately stated on the bill to the lessee from the lessor).
9. Marine vessel brokerage services.

• Newspapers
• Pollution control equipment used in the operation of air pollution control facilities or in the operation of facilities for the treatment of industrial waste that are approved by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Purchasers must complete CERT-117, Purchases of Tangible Personal Property Incorporated Into or Consumed in Air Pollution Control Facilities, or CERT-124, Purchases of Tangible Personal Property Incorporated Into or Consumed in Water Pollution Control Facilities.
• Personal property used in burial or cremation with a value up to $2,500 for any single funeral; and caskets.
• Printing equipment
  1. Machinery, equipment, tools, materials, and supplies used in commercial printing.
  2. Machinery, equipment, tools, materials, and supplies for typesetting, color separation, finished copy, or similar products.

Purchasers using either exemption must complete CERT-120, Machinery, Equipment, Tools, Materials, and Supplies Used in the Production of Printed Material or in Prepress Production.

• Printed material manufactured for a purchaser in Connecticut to be delivered for use outside the state within 30 days following delivery. The purchaser must provide a Printed Material Certificate which can be found in Conn. Agencies Regs. § 12-426-20.
• Rare or antique coins. See Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-412(45).
• Sales to a telecommunications company or community antenna television company of equipment used to provide telecommunications, high-speed data transmission, or broad-band Internet services which offer the capability to transmit information at a rate that is not less than two hundred kilobits per second in at least one direction.
• Shoe repair services
• Certain services rendered at the residence of a disabled person: Landscaping and horticulture services, window cleaning services, or maintenance services rendered at the residence of a person eligible for and currently receiving total disability benefits under the Social Security Act. The purchaser must complete CERT-121, Exemption for Landscaping and Horticulture Services, Window Cleaning Services, and Maintenance Services Provided to Recipients of Total Disability Benefits.
• Ice storage systems for cooling: The purchaser must complete CERT-140, Solar Heating Systems, Solar Electricity Generating Systems, and Ice Storage Cooling Systems.
• Solar energy electricity generating systems, passive or active solar water or space heating systems, and geothermal resource systems: The purchaser must complete CERT-140, Solar Heating Systems, Solar Electricity Generating Systems, and Ice Storage Cooling Systems.
• Utility exemptions:
  1. Gas or electricity for residential use. Sales for use directly in agricultural production, fabrication of a finished product to be sold, or in manufacturing production in a metered premises at which not less than 75% of the gas or electricity is used for agricultural, fabrication, or manufacturing purposes. The purchaser must complete CERT-115, Exempt Purchases of Gas, Electricity, and Heating Fuel.
  2. The first $150 in electric charges to a business are exempt for any month of service. If a customer is billed separately for (1) electric transmission services and electric distribution services by the electric distribution company and (2) for the electric generation services by the electric supplier, the $150 exemption applies only to the separate bill for electric transmission services and electric distribution services. If a customer is issued a combined bill by the electric distribution company for electric transmission services and electric distribution services and for electric generation services, the $150 exemption applies to the combined bill.
  3. Water, steam, and telegraph services when delivered to consumers through mains, lines, pipes, or bottles.
• Vending machine sales: Sales of any items costing 50 cents or less and sales of food products, including meals, in vending machines.