Sales/Use Tax Missouri: Scanning documents to computer discs is a nontaxable service, not sale of tangible personal property

Western Blue Print Co. v. Director, Mo. (4/20/10). The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed that a printing company's charges for scanning and imaging documents onto computer discs (CDs) for its customers were not subject to Missouri sales tax, because the "true object" of the transactions constituted the provision of nontaxable services, rather than the taxable sale of tangible personal property. That is, the true object of the transactions was to obtain access to the customer's own documents in a paperless format, not to obtain the CDs. The CD was merely a medium of transmission for the intangible product.