Work and labour test distinguishes artistic services from sale of goods, excluding sales tax liability.

The decisive test was whether the transaction was a sale of goods or a contract for work and labour. Where an artist prepared designs, painted pictures and coloured slides by applying personal skill and labour, with no trading activity or ordinary sale of goods, the substance of the arrangement was found to be the production of a finished artistic result rather than the transfer of chattel for price. On that footing, the transaction was treated as work and labour, not a sale of goods, and sales tax did not apply.

---

---

Issues: Whether the assessee's transactions in preparing designs, painting pictures, and colouring slides amounted to a sale of goods liable to sales tax, or were contracts for work and labour outside the taxing provision.

Analysis: The decisive test was whether the substance of the transaction was the sale of a chattel for price or the rendering of personal skill and labour to produce a finished artistic product. The assessee was found to be an artist supplying the result of his skill and labour, with no trading activity, no holding out of goods for sale in the ordinary sense, and no transfer of property in goods in the course of the work. The transaction, viewed as a whole, was held to be one for work and labour rather than a sale of goods.

Conclusion: The transactions were not sales and the assessee was not liable to pay sales tax.

---