Texas Comptroller Affirms Staff’s Denial of Taxpayer’s Sales Tax Refund Claim Concerning Security Services Purchases

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts June 27 adopted, with changes, an Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ) recommendation to deny Taxpayer’s sales and use tax refund claim. Taxpayer, a baseball team, claimed the refund against taxes paid for purchasing security services. The Tax Division (staff) agreed to refund some amount relating to training services and disallowed the claim against all purchases of security services, including canine bomb detection services. The staff subsequently amended the assessment but excluded purchases for security services. Taxpayer appealed. The ALJ found: 1) canine explosive detection services were taxable during the period at issue because they were …