Ezel / Tax Rulings / CA

Were recipe booklets showing foods made with specific wine vinegar or cooking wines exempt product labels?

Short answer No. The booklets were gifts or premiums, not labels giving necessary use instructions or safety warnings, so their sale to the winery received the taxable treatment identified in the letter.
State
CA
Ruling
Annotation 280.0860
Tax type
Sales and Use Tax
Issued
1969-10-24
Issued by
California State Board of Equalization
Requested by
A printing service asking about winery recipe booklets (identity redacted)
Topics
wineries labels premiums
Source
View Original PDF

Apply this to your situation

This page answers the general question as of 1969. Ask about yours and see what current California tax law says, with citations.

Currency note: this ruling is from 1969
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Disclaimer: This Oct. 24, 1969 tax-counsel letter applies historical Ruling 72 and Annotation 1292.25 to two unpublished recipe booklets. The PDF does not reproduce the Sept. 6 request, booklets, recipes, product labels or bottles, winery order, printer invoice, distribution terms, costs, returns, tax records, Ruling 72 enclosure, or underlying annotation material. CDTFA's current annotation omits the PDF's wine-vinegar reference and cited authorities and instead names Regulation 1670. Another taxpayer should check current label, packaging, recipe, premium, gift, instruction, warning, product-identity, substantiation, winery, and sales-and-use-tax law. Another taxpayer should not treat it as binding. 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

Booklets reprinted recipes using particular wine vinegar or cooking wines. Tax counsel concluded they were not exempt labels.

The letter limited qualifying application-or-use information to directions and warnings such as flammability notices, surface preparation, product restrictions, or mixing instructions. Recipes did not serve that function.

The booklets were therefore gifts or premiums whose sale to the winery received the historical taxable treatment in Ruling 72.

Citations and references

  • Historical Sales and Use Tax Ruling 72 — cited and characterized; copy identified as enclosed but not reproduced in the official PDF
  • Historical Annotation 1292.25, method for application or use — cited and characterized; underlying material not reproduced in the official PDF
  • Printer's Sept. 6, 1969 letter and two enclosed recipe booklets — question and contents described; letter, booklets, recipes, and attachments not reproduced in the official PDF
  • Specific wine vinegar or cooking wines, winery sale, flammability warnings, use restrictions, surface preparation, and mixing directions — products and comparison supplied; product labels, bottles, booklets, winery order, printer invoice, distribution terms, costs, returns, and tax records not reproduced in the official PDF
  • Official Annotation 280.0860's food recipes, cooking wines, no-label, gifts-or-premiums, and Regulation 1670 summary — annotation omits the PDF's wine vinegar, Ruling 72, Annotation 1292.25, and instruction examples and supplies no additional booklet or transaction record
  • Possible later booklet sale or distribution, return filing, audit, assessment, payment, refund claim, appeal, or other agency action — not supplied in the official PDF

Source

Original ruling text

280.0860

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

October 24, 1969

R---’s P--- Service
P.O. Box XXX
--- ---, California XXXXX
Attention:

SR -- XX XXXXXX

Mr. M. E. “---” R---

Dear Mr. R---:
This is in reply to your letter of September 6, 1969, wherein you asked our opinion as to whether or not the two booklets you enclosed qualify as exempt labels. The booklets involved are reprints of recipes in which the specific wine vinegar or cooking wines can be used. In our opinion the booklets do not constitute exempt labels but are rather a gift or premium. The proper application of tax to the sales of these items by you to the winery is set forth in Ruling 72, copy enclosed. We do not consider a recipe booklet as providing a method for application or use of the product within the meaning of annotation 1292.25. In our opinion, such instructions are limited to such things as warnings, i.e., flammable mixture, and the proper use of the item i.e., apply only to wood products, surface must be cleaned with solvent before item is applied, mix two parts water with one part mixture. Very truly yours,

Glenn L. Rigby
Tax Counsel

GLR:lt
Enclosure

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