Sales Tax Calculator 2021

Sales tax

California sales tax is imposed on all California retailers.
It applies to all retail sales of merchandise (tangible personal property) in the state.
Retailers are required to obtain a seller's permit and to report and pay sales tax to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA).
Retailers have the option of (reimbursing themselves) collecting sales tax from their customers. Most retailers choose this option.
Whether or not a retailer collects sales tax, the retailer must report and pay the tax due.

Use tax

California use tax is imposed on consumers of merchandise (tangible personal property) that is used, consumed, or stored in this state.
Consumers in California owe use tax on purchases from out-of-state retailers when the out-of-state retailer is not registered to collect California tax, or for some other reason does not collect California tax.
- Applies to leases of merchandise (tangible personal property), including vehicles, vessels, and aircraft. Please see FAQ #7 and FAQ #14 for information on vehicles, vessels, and aircraft.
Applies to purchases made in foreign countries and hand carried through U.S. Customs into California.
The state sales tax and use tax are "mutually exclusive," which means either sales tax or use tax may apply to a single transaction, but not both.

Many of California's cities, counties, towns, and communities have special taxing jurisdictions (districts), that impose a transaction sales and use tax, referred to as district taxes, in addition to the standard statewide tax rate of 7.25%.

District taxes increase the tax rate in a particular area by adding the district tax to the basic statewide tax rate of 7.25% (effective January 1, 2017).
Rates for these districts may range from 0.10% to 1.00% per district.
In some areas, there is more than one district tax in effect.
In others, there is no district tax in effect.
As a seller or a consumer, you are required to report and pay the applicable district taxes for your taxable sales and purchases in that district.

Rates change often as voters approve new tax districts and old districts expire. We provide recent updates in Special Notices and on the California City & County Sales & Use Tax Rates webpage.

To find the current sales and use tax rate for a specific location, you may use the Find a Sales and Use Tax Rate webpage to look up a tax rate by address.

On the California City & County Sales & Use Tax Rates webpage, you will also find the following information:

The rates and effective dates for specific district taxes.
Information concerning recent tax rate changes.
The history of sales and use tax rates.
The combined sales, use, and district tax rate in certain cities and communities in California.

No, it is not always possible to determine the correct tax rate based solely on a mailing address or zip code.

Example

A customer may have a zip code and city name whose mail is routed to a post office in a neighboring area that has a different tax rate. If you relied solely on the post office mailing address to determine the tax rate, you might assume the customer lived in a county or city other than the one in which he or she actually resides. As a result, you could apply an incorrect tax rate.
Post Office mailing addresses sometimes use a "city" designation other than the actual city in which the addressee is located. For example, in Los Angeles County, the "cities" of Hollywood, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, San Pedro, West Los Angeles, and Eagle Rock are actually located within the City of Los Angeles.

To assist retailers and consumers in identifying addresses located within special taxing jurisdictions, some cities have developed an online database of addresses. In cooperation with these cities, our webpage, California City and County Sales and Use Tax Rates provides a link to their address databases. If you have questions about the addresses, you should contact the cities directly.

You are considered "engaged in business" in a district if you:

Ship or deliver the property into the district using your own vehicle.
Maintain, occupy, or use any type of office, sales room, warehouse, or other place of business in the district, even if it is used temporarily, indirectly, or through an agent.
Have any kind of representative operating in the district for the purposes of making sales or deliveries, installing or assembling tangible personal property, or taking orders.
Derive rentals from a lease of tangible personal property located in the district.
Sell or lease vehicles or undocumented vessels which will be registered in a district.

However, beginning April 1, 2019, a new district use tax collection requirement pursuant to the Wayfair decision applies to both in-state and out-of-state retailers. For more information, please see our Use Tax Collection Requirements Based on Sales into California due to the Wayfair Decision guide.

Transactions (sales) tax is imposed on the sale of merchandise (tangible personal property) in a district, and you are generally responsible for reporting transactions tax if you are a retailer "engaged in business" in a district (See FAQ #8).

If you have more than one business location, your liability for district tax will depend on the location at which you conduct principal negotiations for your sales.

For more information about the application of tax to sales by businesses with multiple locations, please see FAQ#5.

District use taxes are imposed on the storage, use or other consumption of merchandise (tangible personal property) in a district. You may be responsible for reporting district use tax if:

You are "engaged in business" in a district.
You lease, store, or consume merchandise (tangible personal property) in a district.
Declaration to relieve retailer of obligation to collect district use tax for sales delivered to purchaser outside of the district
- Regulation 1823.4, Place of Delivery of Tangible Personal Property-Generally, provides an exemption for the purposes of the use tax, not the transactions (sales) tax. A retailer may be relieved of the obligation to collect the use tax (for sales other than vehicles, aircraft, and vessels) imposed by a district when you ship or deliver merchandise (tangible personal property) outside of that district to a purchaser's principal residence address or principal business address.
You are relieved of the obligation by accepting, in good faith, a properly executed declaration under penalty of perjury, as provided in Regulation 1823.4.

If you are a retailer whose only business location is in a district, you must generally report and pay the district's transactions tax on all your sales unless:

You, your agent, or a common carrier ships or delivers the property to an out-of-state or out-of-district location.
The sale is exempt from the general sales tax or is otherwise exempt from the transactions tax.

If your business is located outside a district, your over-the-countersales are not subject to transactions tax. However, for property that you ship or deliver into a district, you may be required to pay district use tax if you are "engaged in business" in that district.

If you are a retailer with more than one location, the place of sale is generally considered the location at which you carry on principal negotiations even if you must forward the order to another location for acceptance, approval of credit, shipment, or billing. Your employees' activities will be attributed to the location from which they work. Consequently, sales made or negotiated by employees at places located in districts are generally subject to transactions tax.

As with a single location business, you are allowed an exemption from district tax for property that is shipped to an out-of-state location or for property that is also exempt from the sales and use tax.

You are not required to pay transactions tax on sales made at business locations outside districts. You may, however, be required to collect district use tax if you ship the property into a district in which you are "engaged in business."

You are not required to pay for transactions tax on sales made:

At business locations outside districts.
- When you accept a declaration in good faith as provided in Regulation 1823.4, Place of Delivery of Tangible Personal Property Generally.

The transactions (sales) tax does not apply to property sold within a district but is shipped or delivered, as agreed to in the contract of sale, to a point outside the district.

You are generally required to pay the district use tax in your customer's district, if you are "engaged in business" in the district in which you deliver the merchandise (See FAQ #5).

You are generally not required to pay for your district's tax if the customer does not take possession of the property in your district.

However, if your customer is located in another district, you are generally required to pay that district's use tax if:

You are "engaged in business" in that district and you ship or deliver the property, as agreed to in the contract of sale, into the district (or otherwise participate in the district in the making of the sale).
You are a licensed dealer selling a vehicle, undocumented vessel, or aircraft that the buyer registers at an address located in the district.

Please see publication 79, Documented Vessels and California Tax, publication 79-A, Aircraft and California Tax, and publication 34, Motor Vehicle Dealers.

Yes. If the property is used in a district with a higher tax rate than the rate paid at the time of purchase, the additional tax is due. If you hold a seller's permit, you are required to report and pay the additional business related use tax liabilities on your sales and use tax returns. If you do not have a seller's permit with the CDTFA, you can report your purchase(s) subject to use tax on our Taxpayer Online Services Portal page and select "One-Time Use Tax and/or Lumber Return." You may also report and pay use tax to the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) on your California income tax return.

For more information on use tax, please visit the California Use Tax Information webpage.

You do not owe district tax on a sale made to a district resident when you do both of the following:

Make the sale outside the district.
Transfer possession or ownership of the merchandise outside the district.

Exceptions: If you deliver the product into the district with your own vehicle, or participated in that district in making the sale and are "engaged in business" in the district (see FAQ #5), you must collect the district's use tax.

Sales Tax Calculator 2021