Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1940 )

; Honorable George H. Sheppard, Page 2 . merchandise , -commo&tien, confection8 or music and whhich is operated by or vdth coins or metal slugs, tokens or ~chocks: The following are ex- pressly included rtithln said term; candy ma- chines, &ummachines, s~@dvdch machines, handker- chief machines, sanitary drinking cups, phonoggwphs; pianos, graphophones, radios, and all other coin- operated mchims which dispense or vend merchan- dise, commodities, confections or music.” ‘l(f) The term tservioe coin-operated machinest shall mean and include pay toilets, pay telephones i and all ,other machines or devices which.dispense service only and not merchandise; music, skill or pleasure .‘I Asticle 70478-3, Vernon*s Civil Statutes, levies a tax on “merchandise or music aoin-operated macbinee” in the amounts therein set out. Article 7047a-4, Vernon’s Civil Statutes, reads as followsa “Gas meters, pay tolephones, pay toilets, I~ ’ and cigarette vending machines which are now , subject to an occupation or gross receipt tax and tservlce coin-operated machines’ as that .,term is definedi are expressly exempt from the tax levied herein, and the other provisions of Tthis Section.” It is first noted that the service coin operated machines which are exempt from the tax are those which dis- pense “service on1 and not merchandise, music, skill or pleasure". It 9’8 a matter of common knowlodge that vendors of bottled drinks either open the bottles themselves for the convonicnce of the customers or provide openers for the%r use In open?n(: them, Whatever service may be in- volved in furnishing an opener is purely Inoldental to the sale of the drink. 5%~ machine In question is coin operated. It provides the method of oponinG the bottle and makinG the liquid avallable to the customer. Yor practical purposes, ~~ it has bhe same thing to do with tho sale of the drink a,s