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Sales Tax Update - July 2026

by Michael T. Dillon, Esq., Dillon Tax Consulting LLC
7/21/2026
  • Newly taxable: Pursuant to SB 122, effective 1/1/27, prewritten software becomes subject to California sales and use tax regardless of whether it is:
    • Delivered on physical media
    • Downloaded electronically
    • Accessed remotely
    • Provided as SaaS
  • Classification: Covered digital products are treated as tangible personal property for sales and use tax purposes.
  • Custom software: Software prepared to the special order of a customer remains exempt, including qualifying custom programs incorporating preexisting components.
  • Other digital goods: The law is principally directed at prewritten software and SaaS. Many consumer digital products, such as streaming media, digital books, music, and similar content, are ...
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Where States Will Turn for Revenue in Response to Declining Sales Tax Collections?

Michael T Dillon, Dillon Tax Consulting LLC
5/27/2020

As I predicted in my March 25th post, Sales Tax Strategies During the Economic Disruption of the COVID-19 Outbreak, every state is revising its FY 2020 revenue forecasts in response to declining tax collections for March and April.  [https://www.ncsl.org/research/fiscal-policy/ coronavirus-covid-19-state-budget-updates-and-revenue-projections637208306.aspx ]  As reported by the National Conference for State Legislatures ...

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Sales Tax on Cloud-computing: Rulings Also Mean More Uncertainty and Unpredictability

Dillon Tax Consulting
12/13/2016

A number of sales tax decisions in Tennessee, Indiana and Illinois serve to remind us all of the uncertainty involving cloud computing transactions, and the importance to seek guidance from tax practitioners regarding your specific facts. While each taxpayers’ facts involved the access to and/or provision of cloud-based services, the transactions for each were ...

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Texas Court says the “Essence of Transaction” involving a Provider’s technology platform is not “Data Processing”

Dillon Tax Consulting
5/10/2016

In a decision involving the true object, or “essence of the transaction” test, the Texas court of appeals upheld the trial court’s decision in favor of the taxpayer refund claim for sales tax assessed on the provision of bill pay services. In Hegar v. CheckFree Services Corporation, NO. 14-15-00027-CV (Tex. Ct. App., April 19 ...

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Cloud-based Services: “The Wild West” and the Cavalry

Dillon Tax Consulting
11/8/2015

The New York Department of Taxation and Finance (Department) recently issued an Advisory Opinion providing their interpretation of yet another Taxpayer's provision of Software As a Service (SAaS). In TSB-A-15(36)S, Taxpayer sought an Advisory Opinion from the Office of Counsel for the Department, as to the application of New York sales tax ...

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