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Committee approves sales-tax exemptions for certain medical devices; clarifying amendment added for salvage-vehicle recycling
Summary
The committee voted to advance House Bill 653, which expands sales-tax exemptions for certain durable medical equipment and related accessories and includes a clarifying amendment about tax treatment of inoperable vehicles during the recycling process.
A House committee recommended House Bill 653 do pass, approving a house committee substitute and a clarifying amendment that broadened the bill’s title to “sales tax exemptions” and added language clarifying how sales tax applies during salvage and recycling processes.
The bill’s sponsors and the chairman said HB653 targets durable medical equipment and accessories that were not included in earlier definitions dating to 1980. The chairman said the change would exempt items such as certain portable medical devices and scripted wheelchair accessories that are functionally necessary for patients. “These are our durable medical equipment items that were just left out… a lot of things that weren't developed then, well, we have now,” the chairman said.
Representative Davis offered a clarifying amendment addressing sales-tax treatment for inoperable vehicles and parts as they move through recycling steps. Davis said the amendment clarifies that vehicles sold as scrap or unusable as a whole are not taxed at every step of the recycling process; taxation attaches if and when the vehicle or parts are sold at the end of the process. “This just basically says that, during the process that that a vehicle would go through through recycling, it will not be taxed during the process, but if it then goes to sale at the end, that would be taxed at that point,” Davis said.
Representative Taylor and other members objected to combining multiple items into a single bill, calling the package an omnibus vehicle. Taylor said he tends “not to like these omnibus bills” and questioned folding separately heard measures into a single substitute. The chairman and sponsor said the amendments were intended to keep related sales-tax exemption language available and to provide legislative vehicles as the bills move toward the floor.
The committee adopted the amendment, approved the substitute and voted the house committee substitute for House Bill 653 do pass. The roll call in the provided excerpt recorded eight ayes and zero noes on the final substitute vote.
