Retail Sales and Use Tax; media-related exemptions, sunset.
SB871 amends Virginia’s retail sales and use tax exemption statute for media-related activities and extends several existing sunset dates. The bill preserves and updates exemptions for items and services tied to broadcasting, print publications, advertising materials, and audiovisual production. Most notably, it extends through July 1, 2028 the exemption for certain printed materials purchased by advertising businesses from Virginia printers when the materials are distributed outside the Commonwealth. It also extends through July 1, 2027 the exemption for audiovisual works and related production services, equipment, and tangible property used in producing those works.
The bill also maintains exemptions for daily or periodic publications, catalogs and similar printed materials stored briefly in Virginia for out-of-state distribution, broadcasting equipment used by radio, television, cable, and related communications providers, and certain educational materials withdrawn from publisher inventory for free distribution. In effect, SB871 keeps Virginia’s tax code aligned with longstanding policy choices that reduce sales and use tax burdens on media production, publishing, and advertising activities, while pushing back the expiration dates on selected provisions rather than creating entirely new exemptions.
SB871 directly amends Code of Virginia § 58.1-609.6, the media-related exemptions section of the retail sales and use tax law. Its principal legal effect is to extend sunset dates for two exemptions: the advertising-business printing exemption and the audiovisual production exemption. As a result, affected businesses—printers, publishers, advertising agencies, broadcasters, film and video producers, and related equipment suppliers—continue to receive sales and use tax relief on qualifying transactions for additional years. The bill does not broadly expand the categories of exempt property or services, but it preserves existing tax preferences and delays their expiration.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial overall. It advanced through the Senate and House with large bipartisan majorities, including unanimous or near-unanimous committee and floor votes in several stages, and ultimately passed both chambers overwhelmingly. The voting history suggests general agreement that the existing media-related exemptions should remain in place, at least for the extended periods provided in the bill.
The main point of contention was not whether the exemptions should exist, but how long they should continue and whether any substitute language should be adopted. The House initially passed a substitute version, which the Senate rejected 40-0, indicating a procedural or policy disagreement over amendments rather than the underlying tax exemptions themselves. After that, the chambers resolved the differences in conference and both approved the conference report by wide margins. The limited number of dissenting votes in the House suggests only minor opposition, likely centered on tax preference policy or sunset extension concerns.