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<div>Over the years, I have learned how to accept my two halves, and quite frankly, I am still learning to accept both. Something that has been unwavering, however, throughout my life thus far is that I am proud of my roots. I know that the more I express my light and my story, and other mixed Jews of color and Jews of color express their stories, the more open and understanding the world will become of our beautiful mixed race.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>brills express newspaper free download</div><div></div><div>Download File: https://t.co/Bf2PzN4WfL </div><div></div><div></div><div>The central issue in this case is whether the weekly publication distributed by plaintiff ADVO, Inc. ( ADVO ) during the period at issue was a newspaper within the meaning of N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30. Resolution of this question will determine whether receipts from the sale of advertising in the publication were exempt from sales tax. For the reasons described more fully below, the court concludes that during the period at issue plaintiff published a newspaper within the meaning of the statute. Plaintiff, therefore, is entitled to a refund of the sales tax it collected on its advertising revenue for distribution to the customers who paid the tax. See N.J.S.A. 54:32B-20(a). As a result of this conclusion, the court reverses defendant Director, Division of Taxation s final determination denying plaintiff s refund request.</div><div></div><div></div><div>The court makes the following findings of fact based on the submissions of the parties on cross-motions for summary judgment. During the period January 14, 2007 to April 28, 2007, plaintiff, a Delaware corporation, published a free, weekly, four-page publication entitled ShopWise. Prior to January 14, 2007, Shop Wise contained only advertising content. By letter dated April 7, 2005, plaintiff requested a ruling from the Director, Division of Taxation on various sales and use tax issues. ADVO s ruling request sought guidance on whether contemplated modifications to Shop Wise would qualify the publication as a newspaper within the meaning of N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30, which exempts from sales tax revenue from advertisements to be published in newspapers. Plaintiff requested a ruling that [a]ssuming ADVO limits the advertising space on its Shop Wise publication to 90 percent or less, ADVO s Shop Wise publication will qualify as an exempt newspaper. In a May 27, 2005 response to the ruling request, the Director advised that if Shop Wise contained more than 10% non-advertising matter and met the other applicable regulatory requirements the publication would qualify as a newspaper under the statute and N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2 (2007), a regulation interpreting N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30.</div><div></div><div></div><div>ADVO distributed Shop Wise each week without charge to residential recipients at 2.6 million New Jersey households. Shop Wise was most frequently delivered by the United States Postal Service through bulk mailing, although the publication was sometimes delivered by newspaper carriers and hand delivery in densely populated areas or because of other considerations.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Plaintiff considered advertising receipts from the reformatted Shop Wise to be exempt from sales tax during the relevant period because the publication constituted a newspaper within the meaning of N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30. However, in the event that the Director disagreed with this position, plaintiff did not want to expose itself to sales tax liability, penalties and interest and the prospect of injuring business relationships by seeking recovery of those amounts from clients. Accordingly, ADVO charged and collected sales tax on its advertising revenue. Plaintiff thereafter filed a refund claim for the sales tax it collected with the intention of reimbursing its clients if the refund was granted. See N.J.S.A. 54:32B-20(a).</div><div></div><div></div><div>By letter dated July 15, 2007, ADVO filed a claim for a refund of sales tax in the amount of $1,019,094.41. In a letter dated November 7, 2007, the Director denied plaintiff s refund request. The denial was based on the Director s determination that Shop Wise did not meet the definition of newspaper set forth in N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2 (2007), which interprets N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30, and was instead an advertising flyer or advertising service and was not purchased by readers generally based on an interest in the information contained in the publication. In addition, the Director stated that Shop Wise was mailed to recipients solely as a means to distribute advertising and that presenting articles on one page of the four page flyer cannot be treated as converting it into a newspaper, magazine or periodical.</div><div></div><div></div><div>The express intent of the Brill decision was to encourage trial courts not to refrain from granting summary judgment when the proper circumstances present themselves. Howell Twp. v. Monmouth County Bd. of Taxation, 18 N.J. Tax 149, 153 (Tax 1999)(quoting Brill, supra, 142 N.J. at 541). The court concludes that this matter is ripe for decision by summary judgment. There are no material facts in dispute between the parties and the validity of the Director s decision can be determined by application of the law to the undisputed facts.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>It is against this backdrop of guiding principles that the court must apply N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30 and N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2 (2007) to the facts of this case. The statute provides that [r]eceipts from the sales of advertising to be published in a newspaper are exempt from the tax imposed under the Sales and Use Tax Act. The Legislature did not define newspaper for purposes of this exemption. The Director, however, promulgated a regulation setting forth detailed criteria for determining whether a publication is a newspaper for purposes of N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30. The regulation was adopted pursuant to the Director s authority to make, adopt and amend rules and regulations appropriate to the carrying out of the sales and use tax statute. N.J.S.A. 54:32B-24.</div><div></div><div></div><div>3. A newspaper contains information of general interest or reports of current events and contains original or reprinted articles on a variety of topics, photographs, illustrations, advertising matter, legal notices, comic strips, cartoons, editorial comment or other such subject matter;</div><div></div><div></div><div>(b) Except as inconsistent with (a) above, whether a publication has been or would be classified as one which is entitled to second class mailing privileges by the United States Postal Service will be taken into consideration in the determination of whether or not the publication is a newspaper.</div><div></div><div></div><div>This regulation is presumed to be valid. New Jersey Guild of Hearing Aid Dispensers v. Long, 75 N.J. 544 (1978); L.B.D. Constr., Inc. v. Director, Div. of Taxation, 8 N.J. Tax 338, 353 (Tax 1986). N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2 was amended effective in 2009 to alter the definition of newspaper for purposes of the exemption statute. The amended regulation is not applicable to the time periods at issue here.</div><div></div><div></div><div>The Director argues that denial of the refund request was justified because Shop Wise was not a true newspaper and did not satisfy three of the criteria set forth in N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2 (2007). According to the Director, Shop Wise: (1) was not available for circulation among the public; (2) did not contain information of general interest or reports of current events and did not contain original or reprinted articles on a variety of topics, photographs, illustrations, advertising matter, legal notices, comic strips, cartoons, editorial comment or other such subject matter; and (3) had not been or would not have been classified as entitled to second class mailing privileges by the United States Postal Service.</div><div></div><div></div><div>In addition, the Director contends that to qualify for an exemption, Shop Wise must have met all of the indicia set forth in N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2(a) (2007). The taxpayer takes the position that the publication s general conformity with the regulation s criteria was sufficient to establish an exemption. The Director s strict view of the regulation is contradicted by its plain language. The regulation stated that a publication qualifies for an exemption as a newspaper if it generally conforms to each of the criteria of the regulation. N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2(a) (2007). By the Director s own language strict satisfaction of each element of N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2(a) (2007) was not necessary for the exemption to apply. The Director chose to use the phrase generally conforms in the regulation. As a result, application of N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2(a) (2007) to Shop Wise must be made under the general conformity standard. The taxpayer was not put on notice that strict compliance with each of the regulatory criteria was necessary to establish the exemption.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Moreover, the fact that Shop Wise was mailed to resident addressees and not to individually named readers is of no moment. The exemption applied if the publication was circulated whether or not through paid subscriptions, a criterion that implicitly recognized that newspapers are commonly made available to readers who are not specifically identified to the publisher.</div><div></div><div></div><div>(B) A newspaper contains information of general interest or reports of current events and contains original or reprinted articles on a variety of topics, photographs, illustrations, advertising matter, legal notices, comic strips, cartoons, editorial comment or other such subject matter. N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2(a)(3) (2007).</div><div></div><div></div><div>While it is arguably true that Shop Wise did not contain reports of current events, as the Director argues, such reports were not necessary to satisfy the regulatory criterion, which called for information of general interest or reports of current events. (emphasis added). The regulation did not require news or interviews gathered by reporters about current events , (Db12), which the Director argues was necessary to constitute a newspaper. Such a requirement might well have been a reasonable interpretation of the statute. The Director, however, did not include language to that effect in N.J.A.C. 18:24-1.2(a) (2007). The regulation as it existed during the relevant period is presumed to be valid and the requirement that a publication provide only information of general interest to qualify as a newspaper was a reasonable interpretation of N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.30 applicable to the facts before the court.</div><div></div><div> 9738318194</div>
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