In West Virginia, an inventory service company’s observation and electronic recordation of information about a customer’s inventory was subject to consumer’s sales and use tax since it was deemed the creation, and not the processing of data.

Because neither the items of the customer’s inventory nor the company’s employees’ observations qualified as “data”, the company did not qualify for the electronic data processing exemption. However, once the data has been created, the subsequent electronic processing of such inventory data by the inventory service company would be eligible for exemption. (RGIS Inventory Specialists, West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, No. 28212, February 23, 2001)