078.01 The following definitions will be used for this regulation.
078.01A Veterinary medicines includes medicines for the prevention or treatment of disease or injury in animals and includes all drugs, antibiotics, viruses, serums, toxins, antitoxins, or analogous products of natural or synthetic origin.
078.01B Agricultural chemicals includes pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, growth-regulating chemicals, hormones, and rodenticides or any other substance or mixture intended for use in preventing, destroying, repelling, mitigating pests of animals, or to affect the structure or function of animals.
078.01C Food-producing animals includes animal life, the products of which ordinarily constitute food for human consumption or the pelts of which are ordinarily used for human apparel. Cattle, sheep, swine, baby chicks, turkey poults, and bees are examples of exempt forms of animal life.
078.01D Non-food producing animals includes animals such as cats, dogs, zebras, parakeets, penguins, canaries, horses, donkeys, mules, domesticated elk and deer, ostriches, and emus.
078.01E Rendering professional services occurs when the veterinarian has established a doctor-patient-client relationship with the client.
078.01F Livestock means any domestic cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, sheep, or swine.
078.02 Veterinarians are primarily engaged in the business of rendering professional services to owners of domestic animals through care, medication, and treatment of their animals. Charges for professional services rendered by veterinarians and veterinary clinics are not taxable.
078.03 Veterinarians and veterinary clinics are consumers of all property and services they purchase for use in the rendition of professional services and they are required to pay sales or use tax on all purchases except for:
078.03A Purchases of veterinary medicines and agricultural chemicals to be used in the treatment or care of food-producing animals
078.03B Purchases of feed and feed supplements to be fed to food-producing animals
078.03C Purchases of veterinary medicines, agricultural chemicals, and other products that are not used to render professional services but are sold at retail; and
078.03D Purchases of animal specialty services for livestock.
078.04 Veterinarians and veterinary clinics who purchase items without tax and use such items in rendering professional services are required to remit use tax on their cost of the item unless the item is otherwise exempt.
078.05 Veterinarians or veterinary clinics that sell veterinary medicines, agricultural chemicals, feed, feed supplements, veterinary supplies, equipment, or other products, or that provide animal specialty services, apart from the rendition of professional services, are required to collect sales tax from their customers unless such sales are otherwise exempt.
078.05A See Reg-1-063, Feed, Water, Agricultural Chemicals, And Veterinary Medicines For Animal Life, for details regarding documentation requirements to support certain exempt sales.
078.05B See Reg-1-102, Animal Specialty Services, for details regarding taxability of such services.
078.05C If the items sold were tax paid when purchased by the veterinarian or veterinary clinic, the tax is collected on the full retail sale price. The veterinarian or veterinary clinic will remit to the state the difference between the tax collected from the customer and the tax previously paid by the veterinarian or veterinary clinic.
078.06 Items used in rendering professional services are not retail sales regardless of how the charges are itemized on the billing invoice.
078.07 The practice of veterinary medicine is not commercial agriculture. Therefore, machinery and equipment purchased by veterinarians and veterinary clinics to be used in their veterinary practice is not exempt under Reg-1-094, Agricultural Machinery And Equipment Refund.
(Section 54-183, R.S.Supp., 2002, and section 77-2704.41, R.R.S. 2003. October 1, 2003.)