Summary: This blog post explores the sales tax regulations in California for SaaS, digital products, and cloud-based services, providing insights into tax rates, exemptions, and the impact on businesses operating in the state.
California generally does not require sales tax on Software-as-a-Service.
Software accessed on a remote network (i.e. via the Internet) that does not involve the customer receiving a hard copy of the software or taking possession or control of the software is not considered tangible personal property in California. However, if possession of tangible media is transferred to the customer, the entire sale would then be treated as taxable. Transfers of software or information by electronic means are also not taxable.
Saas is not considered tangible personal property in California.
California generally doesn't charge sales tax on digital produts. However, a digital product could be subject to salse tax for various reasons, such as being bundled with a physical product (like a CD-Rom). In instances where the product is subject to tax, California imposes a 7.25% state sales and use tax. In most areas of California, local jurisdictions have added district taxes that increase the tax owed by a seller. Those district tax rates range from 0.10% to 1.00%. Some areas may have more than one district tax in effect. Sellers are required to report and pay the applicable district taxes for their taxable sales and purchases.
CA Rev. & Tax Code Sec. 6016 defines tangible personal property; CA BTLG Reg. 1502 addresses the sale and lease of computer software and data processing services.
California is a state that does not require sales tax on downloadable prewritten software.
California defines prewritten software programs as that which are created for general or repeated sale or lease. This includes a program developed for in-house use which is subsequently offered for sale or lease as a product. When transferred by remote telecommunications (i.e. the Internet) from the seller’s place of business to or through the purchaser’s computer and the purchaser does not obtain possession of any tangible personal property, it is not taxable. This includes if the software is installed by the seller on the customer’s computer so long as the seller does not transfer possession of any storage media to the customer as part of the transaction.
CA BTLG Reg. 1502 addresses the sale and lease of computer software and data processing services.
California does not require sales tax on downloadable custom software.
California defines custom software as that which is prepared for the special order of the customer. It can incorporate pre-existing routines, utilities or similar components. The state advises that custom software, regardless of the form in which the program is transferred (i.e. electronically or via tangible media), is not taxable.
CA BTLG Reg. 1502 addresses the sale and lease of computer software and data processing services.
California generally does not require sales tax on digital downloads such as photographs, music, and ebooks, videos, audiobooks, digital art, and PDFs.
In general, you are not required to pay sales tax in California on the sale of electronic data items you transmit to your client over the Internet, such as software, data, digital books (eBooks), mobile applications, and digital photographs. However, if you include a printed copy of the electronically transferred information or a backup data copy on a physical storage device, like a flash drive, in the sale, the entire transaction is often taxable.
This is because Cal. Rev. & Tax. Cd. §6051 does not include products transferred digitally within its definition of taxable tangible personal property.
You can learn more about why California does not require sales tax on digital products in California Publication 109, Internet Sales (click the “Nontaxable Sales” tab).
California generally does not require sales tax on the sale of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
In general, you are not required to pay sales tax in California on the sale of electronic data items you transmit to your client over the Internet, such as NFTs. This is because Cal. Rev. & Tax. Cd. §6051 does not include products transferred digitally within its definition of taxable tangible personal property.
However, you need to be extremely careful to understand all of the value the customer is receiving by purchasing the NFT. It is common for merchants to bundle the sale of NFTs with other things that might be taxable, including things like exclusive access to communities, discounts, and more. Bundling the NFT with other products or services that are subject to sales tax will likely make the entire NFT transaction taxable.
It seems likely that Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is not subject to sales tax in California because California only imposes sales tax on the sale of tangible personal property, and does not tax sales of electronically delivered goods and services.
California has not provided guidance on whether Infrastructure as a Service is subject to sales tax in California.
IaaS, or infrastructure as a service, is a cloud based software that gives users access to processing, storage, networks, and other computing resources so they may deploy and operate software, such as operating systems and applications. The consumer has control over the delivered apps, storage, and operating systems. The consumer does not have control over the underlying cloud computing infrastructure.