By Michael Penza and Todd Lard

The Wyoming Board of Equalization (BOE) held that purchases of chemicals by an electric utility operating coal-fired electric generation plants were subject to sales tax because the utility was not a manufacturer or a processor. The Board found that the utility was not a manufacturer because it did not transform raw materials into a new product with a distinctive character or use, and that the utility was not a processor because it did not change the state or form of raw materials to use as an ingredient or component of a final product offered for sale. In the Matter of the Appeal of PacifiCorp Inc., Nos. 2012-51, 2013-03 (Wyo. State Bd. of Equalization, Jan. 8, 2016).