Institutions & Instruments
12 entries in this section. Every term is a link — open one for the full definition, its sources, and related entries.
- ADOR The Arizona state tax agency. It administers Transaction Privilege Tax, publishes the contracting guidance, issues the forms, and conducts audits.
- ADOR Tax Policy The ADOR office that answers written questions on how the law applies. Written answers carry protection that phone calls do not.
- Arizona Revised Statutes Arizona's codified law. Where ADOR guidance and the statute disagree, the statute wins — which is not a hypothetical in contracting.
- AZTaxes.gov ADOR's online portal for filing and paying TPT. It also holds two lookup tools contractors need: license verification and address-based tax rates.
- City business license A city-issued permit to do business in that city. Arizona has no state business license, and this is not a TPT license.
- Information letter ADOR's written answer to a taxpayer's question, short of a formal ruling. If it proves wrong, interest and penalties on the resulting deficiency are abated, provided the deficiency comes from the advice and not from inadequate or inaccurate information the taxpayer supplied. The tax itself is not abated.
- Model City Tax Code The shared rulebook Arizona cities use for their own privilege tax. Near-uniform across cities, but each city chooses among optional provisions, so treatment still varies.
- Private taxpayer ruling A formal written determination applying the law to one taxpayer's specific facts. Stronger than an information letter: the taxpayer who received it is protected against the tax itself, provided the reliance was reasonable and the information given was adequate and accurate, for transactions from the date it was received.
- Registrar of Contractors The state agency that licenses contractors to perform construction work. When a contractor says they are licensed, this is usually what they mean — and it is not a TPT license.
- Tax Procedure Notice A category of published ADOR guidance. The two that governed contracting — TPN 15-1 and TPN 18-1 — were rescinded effective January 1, 2026.
- TPT license The license that lets a business report and remit TPT. Separate from an ROC license and from any city business license, and not always required for contractors.
- Transaction Privilege Tax Not a sales tax, despite the nickname. TPT is a tax on the business for the privilege of doing business in Arizona, owed whether or not anything is collected from the customer.