Missouri Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program (Mo. Rev. Stat. sec. 144.810)

single-reviewer statute enacted mo-data-center-sales-tax-exemption-144810

Record created 2026-08-21, last updated 2026-08-21. Snapshot built September 14, 2026. JSON

State

MO

Kind

statute

Status

enacted

Agency

Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) -- 'the agency administering the program' per DED's own guidelines (p.2); Department of Revenue (DOR) issues refunds and annual exemption certificates; DED and DOR jointly prescribe implementing rules per sec. 144.810.10.

Citation

Mo. Rev. Stat. sec. 144.810; enacted 2015 S.B. 149, amended by 2018 S.B. 975 & 1024 (Revision); current codified text effective 8/28/2018 per revisor.mo.gov's own version history ('Effective - 28 Aug 2018, 2 histories'); program's own operative date for facility/investment timing is August 28, 2015 per the statute's 'New facility'/'Expanding facility' definitions.

Effective

2015-08-28

Mandatory

False

Summary

Mo. Rev. Stat. sec. 144.810 creates a sales-and-use-tax exemption program for 'data storage center' facilities (NAICS 518210 data processing/hosting, or NAICS 519130 internet publishing/web search portals) that is application-based, not automatic. DED's own program guidelines state plainly: 'The Department of Economic Development (DED) is the agency administering the program.' (p.2). Two eligibility tracks exist, each with its own investment and jobs threshold and its own exemption term, per the statute's own definitions: (1) NEW FACILITY -- 'The new facility project investment is at least twenty-five million dollars during a period of up to thirty-six consecutive months from the date of the conditional approval for an exemption under this section' (sec. 144.810.1(11)(c)) and 'At least ten new jobs are created at the new facility during a period of up to thirty-six consecutive months from the date of conditional approval for an exemption under this section if the average wage of the new jobs equals or exceeds one hundred fifty percent of the county average wage' (sec. 144.810.1(11)(d)), entitling the project taxpayers to a 100% state-and-local sales/use tax exemption 'for a project period not to exceed fifteen years from the date of conditional approval' (sec. 144.810.2). (2) EXPANDING FACILITY -- an existing/replacement facility that 'has net new investment related to the expansion of operations in this state of at least five million dollars during a period of up to twelve consecutive months and results in the creation of at least five new jobs during a period of up to twenty-four consecutive months from the date of conditional approval for an exemption under this section, if the average wage of the new jobs equals or exceeds one hundred fifty percent of the county average wage' (sec. 144.810.1(6)), entitling the project taxpayers to the same 100% exemption 'for a period not to exceed ten years' (sec. 144.810.4). Both tracks' exemption amount is capped: 'limited to the net fiscal benefit of the state calculated over a ten-year period' (sec. 144.810.2), determined by DED using a Regional Economic Modeling, Inc. (REMI) dataset (DED guidelines p.4). The exemption covers utilities (electricity, gas, water, telecom/internet), machinery/equipment/computers, and construction materials. Process: applicant files a Notice of Intent + Project Plan with DED; DED issues conditional approval or denial within 30 days (silence = deemed approved); DED verifies compliance and certifies to DOR, which issues refunds and certificates. Sec. 144.810.9 bars double-dipping: no exemption recipient under this section 'shall be eligible for benefits under any business recruitment tax credit, as defined in section 135.800' (statute text); DED's guidelines restate this as 'No recipient of an exemption under the data center program may also receive other business recruitment incentives.' (p.4). The program's statutory history line reads '(L. 2015 S.B. 149, A.L. 2018 S.B. 975 & 1024 Revision)' -- originally enacted by 2015 S.B. 149 (operative date August 28, 2015, which is the date embedded throughout the definitions as the facility-eligibility cutoff), revised by 2018 S.B. 975 & 1024 (the version currently in force, per the Revisor's own site: 'Effective - 28 Aug 2018, 2 histories'). CONFIRMED IN USE: DED's own March 24, 2026 press release on the Metrobloks $1.4B Liberty project states plainly, 'For this expansion, Metrobloks will benefit from the Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program.' -- the only located instance of the program being invoked by name for a specific MO facility on file in this corpus. It is unconfirmed from the fetched sources whether Metrobloks is using the 'new facility' or 'expanding facility' track, or whether the state exemption stacks with (or substitutes for) the separate City of Liberty real/personal property tax abatement documented at mo-liberty-city-metrobloks-industrial-dev-2025 -- both are recorded, no relationship between them is asserted.

Exit terms

Not found in the statute text or DED's own program guidelines (both fetched raw this tick). Sec. 144.810.6(2) requires project taxpayers to 'enter into an agreement with the department of economic development providing for repayment penalties in the event the data storage center project fails to comply with any of the requirements of this section' -- i.e., a clawback/repayment mechanism exists, but its quantified terms live in the individual, non-public 'Data Center Program Agreement' executed per project (DED guidelines p.2), which was not located/fetched this tick. Field left null; the repayment-penalty CONCEPT (not its terms) is documented in the summary.

Cost allocation

project taxpayers for a new data storage center project shall be entitled, for a project period not to exceed fifteen years from the date of conditional approval under this section and subject to the requirements of subsection 3 of this section, to an exemption of one hundred percent of the state and local sales and use taxes defined, levied, or calculated under section 32.085, sections 144.010 to 144.525, sections 144.600 to 144.761, or section 238.235, limited to the net fiscal benefit of the state calculated over a ten-year period, on:

• Missouri Revisor of Statutes -- Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 144.810 statute single-reviewer

  “The new facility project investment is at least twenty-five million dollars during a period of up to thirty-six consecutive months from the date of the conditional approval for an exemption under this section.”

  Sec. 144.810.1(11)(c), definition of 'New facility'
  https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.810
  Raw curl fetch (Chrome UA), revisor.mo.gov's own codified statute text -- the current, in-force version (see the 'Effective' source row below). Grounds the New Facility investment threshold ($25M/36mo).

• Missouri Revisor of Statutes -- Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 144.810 statute single-reviewer

  “At least ten new jobs are created at the new facility during a period of up to thirty-six consecutive months from the date of conditional approval for an exemption under this section if the average wage of the new jobs equals or exceeds one hundred fifty percent of the county average wage;”

  Sec. 144.810.1(11)(d), definition of 'New facility'
  https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.810
  Same raw fetch as the investment-threshold row above. Grounds the New Facility jobs threshold (10 jobs/36mo, wage >=150% county average).

• Missouri Revisor of Statutes -- Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 144.810 statute single-reviewer

  “has net new investment related to the expansion of operations in this state of at least five million dollars during a period of up to twelve consecutive months and results in the creation of at least five new jobs during a period of up to twenty-four consecutive months from the date of conditional approval for an exemption under this section, if the average wage of the new jobs equals or exceeds one hundred fifty percent of the county average wage”

  Sec. 144.810.1(6), definition of 'Expanding facility'
  https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.810
  Same raw fetch. Grounds the Expanding Facility investment ($5M/12mo) and jobs (5 jobs/24mo) thresholds in a single contiguous statutory sentence.

• Missouri Revisor of Statutes -- Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 144.810 statute single-reviewer

  “project taxpayers for a new data storage center project shall be entitled, for a project period not to exceed fifteen years from the date of conditional approval under this section and subject to the requirements of subsection 3 of this section, to an exemption of one hundred percent of the state and local sales and use taxes defined, levied, or calculated under section 32.085, sections 144.010 to 144.525, sections 144.600 to 144.761, or section 238.235, limited to the net fiscal benefit of the state calculated over a ten-year period, on:”

  Sec. 144.810.2
  https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.810
  Grounds the New Facility 15-year exemption term, the 100% exemption scope, and the net-fiscal-benefit cap (also used for the cost_allocation field, which is repurposed here to hold the benefit-cap language since this instrument is a tax exemption, not a utility tariff).

• Missouri Revisor of Statutes -- Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 144.810 statute single-reviewer

  “In addition to the exemptions granted under this chapter, upon approval by the department of economic development, project taxpayers for expanding data storage center projects may, for a period not to exceed ten years, be specifically exempted from state and local sales and use taxes defined, levied, or calculated under section 32.085, sections 144.010 to 144.525, sections 144.600 to 144.761, or section 238.235 on:”

  Sec. 144.810.4
  https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.810
  Grounds the Expanding Facility 10-year exemption term.

• Missouri Revisor of Statutes -- Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 144.810 statute single-reviewer

  “(L. 2015 S.B. 149, A.L. 2018 S.B. 975 & 1024 Revision)”

  history line following subsection 10
  https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.810
  Grounds the citation field's enactment/amendment history.

• Missouri Revisor of Statutes -- Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 144.810 statute single-reviewer

  “Effective - 28 Aug 2018, 2 histories”

  version-history header block, top of page
  https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.810
  Grounds the current-codified-version effective date (double space before '28' preserved verbatim as served). A second history line lower on the page ('144.810 8/28/2015 8/28/2018') documents the prior (2015-2018) version, consistent with the L./A.L. history line above.

• Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program Guidelines -- Authorization: 144.810 RSMo. -- Missouri Department of Economic Development government single-reviewer

  “The purpose of the program is to incentivize the location and expansion of data centers in the State of Missouri by providing an exemption, for a period of time, of the sales and utility taxes associated with a variety of activities necessary to build a new facility or expand an existing facility. The Department of Economic Development (DED) is the agency administering the program.”

  p.2, 'Data Center Exemption -- General Information'
  https://ded.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston466/files/media/pdf/2025/02/Data_Center_Program_Guidelines_2023_0.pdf
  Raw curl fetch of DED's own PDF, text-extracted with pdfplumber (native text layer, not image-only; hyphenated line-wraps in the source PDF -- e.g. 'nec-essary' -- reflowed to 'necessary' without altering wording). Grounds the administering-agency field directly in DED's own words.

• Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program Guidelines -- Authorization: 144.810 RSMo. -- Missouri Department of Economic Development government single-reviewer

  “No recipient of an exemption under the data center program may also receive other business recruitment incentives.”

  p.4, benefits/stacking rule
  https://ded.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston466/files/media/pdf/2025/02/Data_Center_Program_Guidelines_2023_0.pdf
  pdfplumber text extraction. DED's own guideline paraphrase of the statute's non-stacking rule (statute text, sec. 144.810.9, uses different wording: 'no recipient of an exemption pursuant to this section shall be eligible for benefits under any business recruitment tax credit, as defined in section 135.800' -- both recorded; the guideline is DED's operational restatement, not a verbatim copy of the statute).

• Metrobloks announces plans for $1.4 billion data center in Liberty | Department of Economic Development government single-reviewer

  “For this expansion, Metrobloks will benefit from the Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Program.”

  single-sentence paragraph naming the program, following the Michelle Hataway quote
  https://ded.mo.gov/press-room/metrobloks-announces-plans-14-billion-data-center-liberty
  Raw curl fetch. THE decisive confirmed-in-use evidence for this instrument: DED's own release naming mo-data-center-sales-tax-exemption-144810 for a specific, named MO project. This URL is already on file in this corpus (collect-utilities-positions.json) for other facility-level facts; this is a new pinpoint/quote from the same page, now linked to the instrument row.

• Gov. Mike Kehoe jobs_permanent

  “This project brings 30 high-quality jobs while strengthening our state’s position as a leader in next-generation infrastructure. We are proud to support innovative companies choosing Missouri to grow, invest, and create opportunity for our communities.”

• Michelle Hataway, Director, Missouri Department of Economic Development other

  “With the support of regional, local, and state incentives, and strong partnerships with organizations like Missouri Partnership, the City of Liberty, Liberty Economic Development Corporation, KCADC and Evergy, Clay County is well-positioned to create an environment where companies can invest with confidence and communities can benefit from lasting economic growth.”

• Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) tax_revenue

  “Metrobloks’ new investment will bring increased tax revenues, at least 30 jobs with an average annual wage of $95,649, and hundreds of construction jobs to the Liberty area.”