Steel doors are not hardware for sales tax; they fall as unclassified building material and attract the lower rate.

Steel doors were treated as not falling within the commercial category of hardware for sales tax purposes. Applying commercial parlance, the analysis distinguished hardware from iron and steel products and concluded that steel doors could be regarded as building material and, in any event, as an unclassified commodity. The operative effect was a lower tax treatment: steel doors were taxable at 2 per cent rather than at 3 per cent applicable to hardware.

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Issues: Whether steel doors are classifiable as hardware taxable at 3 per cent or as building material or an unclassified commodity taxable at 2 per cent.

Analysis: The dispute concerned the proper commercial classification of steel doors for sales tax purposes. Following an earlier decision distinguishing hardware from iron and steel products as understood in commercial parlance, steel doors were held not to fall within the category of hardware. They were treated as an unclassified commodity and capable of being described as building material for the purpose of rate of tax.

Conclusion: Steel doors are not hardware and are taxable at 2 per cent as an unclassified item or as building material, and not at 3 per cent as hardware.

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