Arizona Sales Tax Exemption on Research Equipment

Equipment purchased exclusively for research purposes is exempt from Arizona State Sales Tax. See UA FSO statement of Research Equipment Tax Exemption. However, there are exceptions to this exemption that impact central, shared use research facilities. These exceptions include "research in social sciences or psychology"—see AZ ARS 42-5061 subsection B.15.

Machinery or equipment used in research and development. For the purposes of this paragraph, "research and development" means basic and applied research in the sciences and engineering, and designing, developing or testing prototypes, processes or new products, including research and development of computer software that is embedded in or an integral part of the prototype or new product or that is required for machinery or equipment otherwise exempt under this section to function effectively. Research and development do not include manufacturing quality control, routine consumer product testing, market research, sales promotion, sales service, research in social sciences or psychology, computer software research that is not included in the definition of research and development, or other nontechnological activities or technical services. (emphasis added)

In order to provide research computing resources to researchers from these exception areas, some of the research computing resources have been purchased with Arizona taxes included. The result is that there are resources available to all campus researchers, with the caveat that researchers in the social sciences, psychology and instructional projects areas are restricted to using resources that are purchased with taxes paid.

Please contact our HPC consultants to learn about the resources that are available for social sciences, psychology and instructional purposes.

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