Ezel / Tax Rulings / CA

When was kelp exempt when sold as a poultry or animal food supplement?

Short answer Kelp was exempt when sold as feed for qualifying food animals or animals held for regular-course sale; qualifying interstate sales were also outside the tax.
State
CA
Ruling
Annotation 110.0900
Tax type
Sales and Use Tax
Issued
1950-08-11
Issued by
California State Board of Equalization
Requested by
A seller asking how California sales tax applied to kelp
Topics
kelp poultry feed animal feed food animals interstate commerce exemptions
Source
View Original PDF

Apply this to your situation

This page answers the general question as of 1950. Ask about yours and see what current California tax law says, with citations.

Currency note: this ruling is from 1950
Subsequent statutory amendments, regulation changes, court decisions, or later rulings may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current tax advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, rate, or position mentioned here.
Disclaimer: This is a California State Board of Equalization tax-counsel letter dated August 11, 1950, published by CDTFA as support for a sales and use tax annotation. It treats kelp as a poultry and animal food supplement and conditions feed exemption on the kind or business disposition of the animals fed. Another taxpayer should not treat it as binding and should check current kelp, poultry-feed, animal-feed, food-animal, animal-for-sale, interstate-commerce, exemption, and sales-and-use-tax rules. This summary is informational only and is not legal or tax advice.
About this page: The plain-English summary, reader guidance, and Q&A below were written by Ezel based on the official state tax ruling. The original ruling (linked on this page as a PDF) is the authoritative source for any reliance.
View original ruling (PDF)

Plain-English summary

Kelp could be used as a poultry and animal food supplement. Its sale was exempt when it was feed for animals whose products ordinarily constituted human food or for animals sold in the regular course of business.

The letter separately noted that qualifying sales in interstate commerce were not subject to tax under Ruling 55 as then cited.

Citations and references

  • California State Board of Equalization Rulings 47 and 55 (as cited)

Source

Original ruling text

110.0900

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

August 11, 1950

P--- R. P---, Inc.
--- XX, --- ----- ---, California
Account: AL-XXXX
Attention:

Mr. A--- B. W---

Gentlemen:
This is in reply to your letter of August 8 with respect to the application of the Sales and Use Tax Law to the sale of kelp. We understand that kelp may be properly used as a poultry and animal food supplement. Accordingly, tax does not apply to the sale of this product when sold as feed for any form of animal life of a kind the products of which ordinarily constitute food for human consumption, or are to be sold in the regular course of business. (See Sales and Use Tax Ruling 47, copy enclosed.) You are advised further that sales in interstate commerce as explained by Ruling 55, copy enclosed, are not subject to application of the tax. We are also enclosing a copy of Ruling 51.5 which may be of interest to you. If you have a question relating to a specific transaction, we shall be happy to give you an opinion upon being furnished with full details. Very truly yours,

R. G. Hamlin
Associate Tax Counsel
RGH:WAP:hb
cc:

W. R. Thomson

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