Ohio Sales / Use Tax: Supreme Court says “keep the taps flowing sans tax,” limiting the scope of taxable building maintenance and janitorial services

Ohio Sales / Use Tax: Supreme Court says “keep the taps flowing sans tax,” limiting the scope of taxable building maintenance and janitorial services. In Great Lakes Bar Control v. Testa, 2018-Ohio-5207, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that maintaining and cleaning draft beer lines falls outside the scope of a taxable “building maintenance and janitorial service.” The Court interpreted the meaning of “cleaning” in the context of a “janitorial service,” rather than applying a hyperliteral meaning. See R.C. 5739.01(II) (definition of “building maintenance and janitorial services”). Cleaning draft beer lines was not a taxable service since “no one would take the ordinary meaning of janitorial cleaning to include inspecting and flushing beer-tap lines.” Justice DeWine’s opinion affirmed the Board of Tax Appeals’ decision that cleaning draft beer lines is not a taxable building maintenance and…

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