Joint utility services

From the 2024 DOR Tax Exemption Study

Det. No. 12-0344, 32 WTD 302 (December 31, 2013) 302 Cite as Det. No. 12-0344, 32 WTD 302 (2013) BEFORE THE APPEALS DIVISION DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE STATE OF WASHINGTON In the Matter of the Petition For Correction of ) D E T E R M I N A T I O N Assessment of ) ) No. 12-0344 . . . ) ) Registration No. . . . ) Document Nos. . . . ) Audit No. . . . ) ) Docket Nos. . . . [1] RCW 82.16.020: PUBLIC UTILITY TAX – CONTRACT MAIL TRANSPORTATION SERVICE – AGENCY OR INSTRUMENTALITY OF UNITED STATES – DIRECT TAXATION – TAX IMMUNITY. Under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, U.S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2, a state may not directly tax the United States or any agency or instrumentality so closely connected to the United States that the two cannot realistically be viewed as separate entities. A state can never directly tax the United States but is free to tax those private parties with whom the Government does business, even when the financial burden is passed on to the United States, so long as it is done without discrimination. A contract mail transportation service that contracts with the United States Postal Service to deliver mail is not an officer or employee of the federal go