Kentucky

Data center equipment sales-tax exemption

Incentive or explicitly supportive policy

In effect

Scope

KRS 139.499 says the taxes imposed by KRS Chapter 139 do not apply to the sale, purchase, use, storage, consumption, installation, repair, and replacement of data center equipment to or by a preliminarily approved company or an approved company, in accordance with the memorandum of agreement described in the section. A certificate of exemption states the company's identity and that the company is exempt from sales and use tax on data center equipment purchased for use in a qualified data center project, and it states the date of expiration based on the term of the memorandum of agreement. The terms used in the section have the meanings in KRS 154.20-220. The opened section does not itself set one statewide calendar end date, and it does not say that a company without an approval receives the exemption.

Dates

Effective
15 July 2024
Scheduled expiration
None scheduled
Completion condition
Each certificate states its own expiration based on the term of that company's memorandum of agreement. The opened section states no single program end date.
Source document
15 July 2024
Last checked
22 September 2026
Issuing authority
Kentucky General Assembly

Summary

KRS 139.499 exempts specified data center equipment from Kentucky sales and use tax when the purchaser is a preliminarily approved company or an approved company acting under its memorandum of agreement. The certificate of exemption includes an expiration date based on that agreement's term. The statute page states that the section is effective July 15, 2024. It does not print one statewide end date, so none is stored. Definitions of the approved company, the equipment, and the qualified project are incorporated from KRS 154.20-220. The exemption is limited to approved companies. It is not a finding that every Kentucky data center is exempt, and it is not a land-use approval.

What this does not establish

  • The exemption section page states: Effective July 15, 2024. History: Created 2024 Ky. Acts ch. 166, sec. 42, effective July 15, 2024.
  • KRS 154.20-220 was opened. Its definition of data center equipment excludes electricity used by a qualified data center project. That definitions section states an amendment effective June 27, 2025. This exemption record does not treat purchased electricity as exempt.
  • Each certificate expires on the term of its own memorandum of agreement. That is not a single program end date.
  • Investment minimums in KRS 154.20-220 are not restated as a finding about a named project.

Unresolved questions

  • The minimum capital investment required by KRS 154.20-220 was not read in that section.
  • Whether any 2025 or 2026 amendment changed KRS 139.499 after the statute identifier that was opened was not checked against a bill list.

Relationships

Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. A later implementation or a related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.

  • No related action is recorded.

Sources

Primary source

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=55425

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