Incidental sale of unsold newspaper copies as waste paper can attract sales tax despite exemption for the main newspaper business.

Unsold newspaper copies sold as waste paper were treated as a separate taxable turnover, not as sales of newspapers. The court noted that printing and publishing newspapers remained the assessee's main business within the statutory definition, but the regular, profit-oriented sale of surplus copies was only incidental to that business. Exemption for the principal newspaper activity and non-registration as a dealer did not shield the incidental sale from sales tax. The principle that an integral part of an exempt activity cannot be separately taxed did not apply, because the waste-paper sale was not integral to the exempt newspaper sales.

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Issues: Whether the turnover from sale of unsold newspaper copies as waste paper was liable to sales tax, and whether such turnover escaped tax because the assessee's main activity was the exempt business of printing and publishing newspapers.

Analysis: Unsold surplus newspaper copies sold as waste paper were not sales of newspapers. The assessee's main activity of printing and publishing newspapers was nevertheless a business within the statutory definition, and the sale of surplus copies was a regular and profit-oriented activity incidental to that business. The fact that the principal newspaper sales were exempt and that the assessee was not registered as a dealer did not prevent tax liability on the incidental sale of surplus copies. The principle that an integral part of an exempt main activity cannot be separately taxed did not apply, because the sale of unsold copies was only incidental and not integral to the exempt activity.

Conclusion: The turnover from sale of unsold newspaper copies as waste paper was taxable, and the assessee's objection based on non-registration as a dealer and exemption of the main newspaper activity failed.

Final Conclusion: The tax revision cases failed on the merits because the disputed sales formed a taxable incidental business activity, notwithstanding the exemption of the principal newspaper sales.

Ratio Decidendi: A regularly carried on incidental activity that forms part of a business is taxable on its own turnover even if the principal activity is exempt and the assessee is not separately registered as a dealer for that exempt principal activity.

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