39-15-103. Imposition.
(a) Taxable event. The following shall apply:
(i) Except as provided by W.S. 39-15-105, there is levied an excise tax upon:
(A) The sales price of every retail sale of tangible personal property within the state;
(B) The gross rental paid for the lease or contract transferring possession of tangible personal property if the transfer of possession would be taxable if a sale occurred;
(C) The sales price paid for intrastate telecommunications services including the consideration paid for the sale, rental or leasing of any equipment or ancillary services incidental thereto, and the sales price paid for intrastate calls which originate and terminate in a single state and are billed to a customer with a place of primary use in this state from mobile telecommunications services as provided by the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. §§ 116 through 126. The definitions and provisions of the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act shall apply to this article;
(D) The sales price paid to carriers for intrastate transportation of passengers;
(E) The sales price paid to public utilities as defined in W.S. 37-1-101 through 37-3-114 and to persons furnishing gas, electricity or heat for domestic, industrial or commercial consumption;
(F) The sales price paid for meals and cover charges, excluding all gratuities regardless of whether offered by the customer or invoiced by the seller, at any place where meals are regularly served to the public;
(G) The sales price paid for living quarters in hotels, motels, tourist courts and similar establishments providing lodging service for transient guests;
(H) The sales price paid for each admission to any place of amusement, entertainment, recreation, games or athletic event. If any persons other than employees, officers of the law on official business or children under twelve (12) years of age are admitted free or at reduced rates to any such place when an admission charge is made to other persons, an equivalent tax shall be paid by these persons based on the price charged to other persons;
(J) The sales price paid for services performed for the repair, alteration or improvement of tangible personal property;
(K) The sales price paid for all services and tangible personal property used in rendering services to real or tangible personal property within an oil or gas well site beginning with and including the setting and cementing of production casing, or if production casing is not set as in the case of an open hole completion, after the completion of the underreaming or the attainment of total depth of the oil or gas well and continuing with all activities sequentially required for the production of any oil or gas well regardless of the chronological occurrence of the activity. All services required during the entire productive life of the well, including recompletion, all the way through abandonment shall be subject to this subparagraph. The provisions of W.S. 39-15-301 through 39-15-311 and W.S. 39-16-301 through 39-16-311 shall not apply to this subparagraph;
(M) The sales price paid for motor vehicles, house trailers, trailer coaches, trailers or semitrailers as defined by W.S. 31-1-101;
(N) The sales price paid for alcoholic beverages;
(O) The sales price paid for computer hardware including the basic set of operating instructions called system software which is necessary to the basic operation of the computer hardware and the sales price paid for the hardware media used to transfer computer software programs;
(P) Except as otherwise provided in this subparagraph, the sales price of every retail sale of specified digital products within the state. A sale of specified digital products is only subject to the tax under this section if the purchaser has permanent use of the specified digital product. A vendor who purchases specified digital products for further commercial broadcast, rebroadcast, transmission, retransmission, licensing, relicensing, distribution, redistribution or exhibition in whole or in part to another person shall be considered a wholesaler and not subject to the tax imposed by this article. Those services provided by a trade association as part of a member benefit are not subject to the tax imposed by this subparagraph.
(b) Basis of tax. The following shall apply:
(i) Except as provided by W.S. 39-15-105, there is levied and shall be paid by the purchaser on all sales an excise tax upon all events as provided by subsection (a) of this section;
(ii) For purposes of W.S. 39-15-107(b)(i), the sales price of motor vehicles, house trailers, trailer coaches, trailers or semitrailers shall be declared by the purchaser upon a copy of the original invoice from the vendor or upon an affidavit furnished by the department if not purchased from a vendor and the tax collected shall be based upon the declaration or invoice;
(iii) Except for those vehicles specified under W.S. 39-15-107(b)(viii), the tax imposed by this article upon the sale of a motor vehicle, house trailer, trailer coach, trailer or semitrailer purchased as a gift shall be collected from the donee prior to the first registration based upon the fair market value of the gift at the time of the gift;
(iv) The tax imposed by this article upon the sale of a transportable home shall be collected upon the first sale of the transportable home. The tax shall be collected on seventy percent (70%) of the sales price of the transportable home. No tax shall be collected upon any subsequent sale of the home.
(c) Taxpayer. The following shall apply:
(i) Except as otherwise provided every vendor shall collect the tax imposed by this article and is liable for the entire amount of taxes imposed;
(ii) Every person purchasing goods or services taxed by this article is liable for the taxes and shall pay any tax owed to the department unless the taxes have been paid to a vendor;
(iii) Any tax due under this article constitutes a debt to the state from the persons who are parties to the transaction, other than any vendor or other seller who is prohibited or not authorized by law to collect any tax under this article, and is a lien from the date the tax is due on all the real and personal property of those persons;
(iv) The vendor shall file a return within thirty (30) days after discontinuing or selling his business. His successor in business shall withhold from the purchase price enough money to pay the taxes, penalties and interest due on the outstanding amount of all credit, installment and conditional sales upon which the tax has not been paid until the time the former owner produces a receipt from the department showing that all taxes have been paid or a certificate that no taxes are due. If the successor fails to withhold from the purchase price the amount due and the taxes, penalty and interest are unpaid the original vendor and successor vendor are liable for the payment of the unpaid taxes, penalties and interest.