South Carolina Rules Scaffolding Use by Insulation Contractors Is Not a Taxable Rental

• South Carolina applied the “true object test” to determine tax liability in a construction arrangement involving scaffolding.
• The insulation contractor was not considered to be renting scaffolding to its customers; the true object was the installation service, not the scaffolding rental.
• The vendor supplying scaffolding to the contractor was classified as a retailer and required to collect sales tax on the scaffolding provided.
• The ruling clarifies that sales tax applies to the vendor’s transaction with the contractor, not to the contractor’s transaction with its customer.
• The guidance helps contractors and subcontractors determine sales tax responsibilities in multi-party construction projects.

Source: aprio.com

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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