M&E Qualification

No for warranties, yes for maintenance agreements. The DOR issued a special notice that specifically calls out warranties as being taxable even if the property is exempt. If the warranty is included in the cost of the total sales price and can't be broken out separately, then it won't be subject to tax because it is considered part of the underlying price. If it is broken out separately, then it is taxable.

Maintenance agreements separate from warranties qualify for tax exemption.

Yes, Definition (15) of RCW 82.63.010 specifically includes software. It states: 'Qualified machinery and equipment' includes: Computers; software; data processing equipment...

Early in the University's adoption of the M&E Exemption, we learned that laptops and other portable computing equipment items would probably not qualify for the exemption under audit. This is due to the items being extremely portable as well as having the ability to be used for many different functions outside of research. To reduce the University's risk under audit, we simply don't allow these items to be purchased under the M&E Exemption.