In addition, to be deemed a price readjustment, the payment or credit must be contractually or economically related to the taxable sale that the payment or credit purports to adjust. Thus, commissions or bonuses paid to a manufacturer's own agents or salesperson for selling the manufacturer's taxable products are not price readjustments for purposes of this section, since those commissions or bonuses are not paid or credited either to the manufacturer's vendee or to a third party for the vendee's benefit. On the other hand, a bonus paid by the manufacturer to a dealer's salesperson for negotiating the sale of a taxable article previously sold to the dealer by the manufacturer is considered to be a readjustment of the price on the original sale of the taxable article, regardless of whether the payment to the salesperson is made directly by the manufacturer or to the salesperson through the dealer. In such a case, the payment is related to the sale of a taxable article and is made for the benefit of the dealer because it is made to the dealer's salesperson to encourage the sale of a product owned by the dealer. Similarly, payments or credits made by a manufacturer to a vendee as reimbursement of interest expense incurred by the vendee in connection with a so-called "free flooring" arrangement for the purchase of taxable articles is a price readjustment, regardless of whether the payment or credit is made directly to the vendee or to the vendee's creditor on behalf of the vendee.
Example. A manufacturer sells a taxable article for $100 plus $10 excise tax, and reports and pays tax liability accordingly. Thereafter, the manufacturer credits the customer's account for $11 (tax included) in readjustment of the original sale price. The overpayment of tax is $1, determined as follows:
Tax-included readjustment *
Tax-included sale price
Original tax due =
Tax overpayment.
$11 * $10 =
$1 tax overpaid.
$110
Example.
Examples. The provisions of paragraph (e)(1) of this section may be illustrated by the following examples:
26 C.F.R. §48.6416(b)(1)-2