The South Carolina Department of Revenue issued a private letter ruling advising a company that its charges for developing and conducting surveys tailored to its clients’ needs are not subject to sales and use tax as communications services. Although taxable communications services include “charges to access an individual website,” and the company provided its clients with online access to their survey results, the Department determined that the true object of the transaction was the non-taxable professional service. The charges for online access to the survey results were merely incidental to the underlying professional service.

S.C. Private Letter Ruling 19-1