(a) An optometrist, optician or ophthalmologist shall be considered the user and consumer of the tangible personal property used in the practice of the optometrist’s, optician’s or ophthalmologist’s profession, and the tax levied under this chapter is not applicable to all or any part of the charge made by such persons to their patients.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 67-6-316

  • Business: includes occasional and isolated sales or transactions of aircraft, vessels, or motor vehicles between corporations and their members or stockholders and also includes such transactions caused by the merger, consolidation, or reorganization of corporations. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Person: includes any individual, firm, co-partnership, joint venture, association, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, syndicate, any governmental agency whose services are essentially a private commercial concern, or other group or combination acting as a unit, in the plural as well as the singular number. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Prescription: means an order, formula or recipe issued in any form of oral, written, electronic, or other means of transmission by a duly licensed practitioner authorized by the laws of this state. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Tangible personal property: includes electricity, water, gas, steam, and prewritten computer software. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Use: means and includes the exercise of any right or power over tangible personal property incident to the ownership thereof, except that it does not include the sale at retail of that property in the regular course of business. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
  • Use tax: includes the "use" "consumption" "distribution" and "storage" as defined in this section. See Tennessee Code 67-6-102
(b) All sales of tangible personal property and taxable services to an optometrist, optician or ophthalmologist are subject to the sales or use tax.
(c) Notwithstanding the foregoing, there shall be exempt from sales or use tax component parts of prescription eyewear, including replacement parts and industrial materials, sold to and used by a person engaged in business in Tennessee of operating an optical laboratory at which prescription eyewear is manufactured or fabricated, where such person also owns or operates the facilities at which such eyewear is ultimately dispensed to patients; provided, that such person shall pay sales or use tax on the purchase price of all prescription eyewear which it dispenses to patients inside this state.
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