Commonwealth v. Beck Electric Construction, Inc.

OPINION OF THE COURT

ROBERTS, Justice.

Section 201(a) of the Tax Act of 1963 for Education imposes a “sales tax” upon “each separate sale at retail,” to be “collected by the vendor from the purchaser” and “paid over to the Commonwealth.” 1 Where no sales tax is collected and paid, Section 201(b) imposes a “use tax” upon the “use” of tangible personal property “purchased at retail.” 2 At the same time, however, “to eliminate tax ‘pyramiding’ otherwise caused in the typical situation of the middleman buying from the producer in order to sell to the retailer who in turn resells the product to the…