The partial sales and use tax exemption for R&D equipment became effective on July 1, 2014. In general, to be eligible for the exemption, three conditions must be met: the purchaser must be a “qualified person,” the equipment purchased must be “qualified property,” and the equipment must be used for R&D in a specified research area.
Qualified Person Requirement
- The account to which the equipment cost is charged must be a “qualified account”:
- Research accounts beginning with the digits “44” are qualified accounts.
Qualified Property and Use Requirements
- The equipment must have a life of over one year, and must be used more than 50% of the time to conduct original research in a qualified area.
- Qualified research areas are generally the hard sciences and include Biotechnology, Agriculture, Electronics, Environmental, Biology, Botany, Computers, Chemistry, Food, Fisheries, Forests, Geology, Health, Mathematics, Medicine, Oceanography, Pharmacy, Physics, Veterinary and allied subjects.
- The equipment must be used for research in California.
Partial Exemption Tax Rate
- For qualifying equipment, 3.9375% of the regular sales and use tax rate is exempt. Effective 10/1/17, the regular rate in Los Angeles County is 9.50%. Therefore the applicable rate for partially exempt equipment purchased for the UCLA Westwood campus is 5.5625% (9.50% LA County rate minus 3.9375%).
Tax Services determines whether the partial exemption applies to a particular purchase. If you believe your R&D equipment purchase may qualify, please complete the Partial Exemption Checklist and send it with the quote and a screenshot of the requisition, to Tax Services.
