Transfer of right to use goods requires possession and legal control; data processing services were not taxable sales.

A transaction constitutes a sale for sales tax purposes only where there is a transfer of the right to use goods for consideration, with the goods being available, deliverable, and put under the transferee's legal right of use to the exclusion of the transferor. Applying that test, the arrangement here did not involve any such transfer because the computers and terminals always remained in the provider's possession, were operated by its employees, and were never handed over, even constructively, to the customer. The arrangement was therefore only a data processing service for fixed periods and did not attract the charging provisions of the Act.

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Issues: Whether the transaction between the parties amounted to a transfer of the right to use goods so as to constitute a sale under the Act and attract sales tax.

Analysis: The statutory definition treated sale as a transfer of the right to use goods for consideration, and tax was leviable only where such transfer occurred. Applying the governing test, the goods had to be available and deliverable, and there had to be delivery at some stage together with legal right of use in favour of the transferee to the exclusion of the transferor. On the facts found, the computers and terminals always remained in the respondents' possession, were operated by their employees, and were never handed over, even constructively, to the customer. The arrangement was only for providing data processing services for fixed periods, which did not amount to transfer of the right to use the equipment.

Conclusion: The transaction was not a taxable transfer of the right to use goods and did not fall within the charging provisions of the Act.

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