Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Director of Revenue

WILLIAM RAY PRICE, JR., Judge.

“This is another case requiring the application of a statutory framework that first took shape in the thirties and forties to the technology of the eighties and nineties.” Bridge Data Co. v. Director of Revenue, 794 S.W.2d 204, 205 (Mo. banc 1990).

I

Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (“Bell”) appeals a decision by the Administrative Hearing Commission (“AHC”), denying Bell a refund of use tax paid on machinery used to provide basic and vertical telephone services. GTE Automatic Elec. v. Director of Revenue held in 1989 that telephone services were not products…