1. “Solid waste” means any garbage or refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from residential, industrial, commercial, mining, medical, agricultural, and restaurant operations, and community activities. Solid waste includes yard waste. Solid waste does not include solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage, or low-level radioactive waste as defined by the Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact codified at Ark. Code Ann. § 8-8-201 et seq. Solid waste does not include recyclable material as defined in Ark. Code Ann. §§ 8-9-104 and 8-6-702 that has been separated from the solid waste stream for subsequent use in its present or reprocessed form. Recyclable materials are removed from the solid waste stream at the point where the materials are separated, identified, collected, or sorted for reuse or reprocessing. Solid waste shall not include waste tires.

2. “Domestic sewage” means the water-carried waste products from residences, public buildings, institutions, or other buildings, including the excrementitious or other discharge from the bodies of humans or animals, together with such groundwater infiltration and surface water as may be present.

3. “Disposal” means the final disposition of solid waste by means of landfilling, incinerating, composting, dumping, abandoning, or other similar method. For purposes of this rule, solid waste disposal does not include the management of hazardous waste in accordance with the provisions of Ark. Code Ann. § 8-7-201 et seq. Hazardous waste management includes the incineration of solid waste which has become commingled with hazardous waste as part of the treatment of hazardous waste.

1. The tax shall be collected and remitted by the seller of the collection or disposal services. Disposal services (“tipping fees”) may be purchased exempt as sales for resale by a person holding a retail permit and performing taxable collection of waste services, if the taxes are included in the charges billed by the person or entity collecting the waste.

2. A fee collected by a city, county, or town from its residents for the collection and disposal of solid waste is subject to tax. The disposal fees paid by the city or county to the landfill or other disposal site are exempt as a sale for resale, provided the city, town, or county collects and remits the applicable tax to the state. A city, town, or county that collects the tax from its residents and contracts with a person or entity for the collection and disposal of solid waste does not pay tax on either the contract amount paid to the contractor or the disposal fee at the landfill or other disposal site.

Example 1: City X collects a fee of $15.00 per month from its residents for collection and disposal of solid waste. City X should collect tax from its residents on the $15.00 fee. City X is not required to pay sales tax on any fee charged to City X when it delivers the waste to the landfill. City X is entitled to claim the sale-for-resale exemption for these landfill charges.

Example 2: City X collects a fee of $15.00 per month from its residents for collection and disposal of solid waste. City X contracts with Contractor to pick up the solid waste and deliver it to the landfill. City X pays Contractor a fee of $12.50 per month per resident. City X should collect tax from its residents on the $15.00 fee. City X should not pay tax on the $12.50 fee paid to Contractor. Contractor should not pay tax on the disposal fee paid to the landfill.

3. A city, county, or town that provides waste collection and disposal services with funds from tax revenues does not collect tax from its residents for the collection or disposal of solid waste. However, the city, county, or town must pay tax on the tipping (disposal) fees (if the city, county, or town disposes of the waste) or on the amount paid to a contractor who collects and disposes of the waste.

Example 1: County Y levied a tax that is dedicated to provide funds for collection and disposal of solid waste of its residents. County Y collects the solid waste from its residents and delivers it to the landfill. County Y should pay tax on the disposal fees to the landfill.

Example 2: County Z levied a tax that is dedicated to provide funds for collection and disposal of solid waste of its residents. County Z contracts with Contractor to pick up the solid waste and deliver it to the landfill. County Z pays Contractor a fee of $12.50 per month per resident. Contractor should collect tax from County Z on the $12.50 fee paid to the Contractor. The disposal fees at the landfill are exempt as a sale for resale.

1. Collection in Arkansas. When waste collection occurs in Arkansas and waste disposal occurs out of state, only the waste collection service is taxable. Disposal services furnished in another state are not subject to Arkansas sales tax.

2. Disposal in Arkansas. When waste is collected in another state and deposited in a landfill in Arkansas, the disposal services are subject to Arkansas sales tax. Disposal services furnished in Arkansas are subject to tax unless an exemption applies.