Glossary · Forms & Certificates
Form 5009L — Contractor’s Project Certificate
In short
The only contracting certificate the Department itself issues. It reaches materials for a project whose gross receipts are taxable, and using it on one that is not carries a recapture printed on the form.
In full
Form 5009L is the Contractor's Project Certificate, and it works unlike every other contracting certificate: the Department of Revenue registers and issues it.
The prime contractor applies, listing every subcontractor on the project who holds no TPT license and attaching the contract pages that identify the parties and the scope of work. The Department registers the certificate. The prime provides a copy to each listed subcontractor, and each subcontractor provides it to a materials vendor. It is not valid unless registered, and incomplete submissions are not registered.
Its statutory footing is A.R.S. § 42-5009(L), and A.R.S. § 42-5061(A)(27)(b) relies on it — that subdivision excludes property sold to a person not subject to tax under § 42-5075 who has been provided a copy of a certificate under § 42-5009(L).
The scope is stated as a taxability test rather than as a classification label. The certificate may only be used for an unlicensed contractor's purchase of materials to be incorporated into the project named on it, "the gross receipts of which are subject to tax under A.R.S. § 42-5075". Gross receipts from an MRRA contract are excluded from that section by subsection (P), so an MRRA project does not meet the test the form states.
The consequence of getting that wrong is printed on the form. Where materials bought under the certificate are later used in the performance of a nontaxable contract, the contractor that gave the certificate to the vendor is liable for an amount equal to the retail transaction privilege tax, with penalty and interest. An exemption claimed on an unauthorized certificate is subject to recapture on the same terms.
That liability is sourced under A.R.S. § 42-5009(L)(3), which directs it to § 42-5040(A)(2) — the purchaser's location in this state, or the purchaser's billing address where there is no delivery address. Form 5009L states instead that the amount is "sourced to the contractor's principal place of business," a phrase that appears nowhere in § 42-5040. The statute governs.
Published sources differ on whether the certificate reaches MRRA work. ADOR's Modification v MRRA chart lists it on the MRRA side as an alternative for an unlicensed subcontractor; the form's own limitation reaches only projects whose gross receipts are taxable under § 42-5075.
Arizona Form 5009L, Contractor's Project Certificate (ADOR 11233, 7/20); A.R.S. § 42-5009(L); A.R.S. § 42-5061(A)(27)(b); A.R.S. § 42-5075(P); ADOR Modification v MRRA Summary