Did a fertilizer seller need a California seller's permit when all current sales were for resale or exempt food-production use?

Plain-English summary

Tax Counsel E. H. Stetson answered redacted memoranda with a general rule rather than deciding an identified seller's transaction. A person selling fertilizer needed a seller's permit even if every sale might be exempt either as a sale for resale or because the fertilizer was applied to land whose products would constitute food for human consumption.

Retail fertilizer sales could be taxable in other circumstances. The memorandum therefore treated a fertilizer vendor as a seller under section 6014. Under section 6015, that seller was a retailer for any retail sale, and section 6066 required sellers to hold permits.

The source does not identify a fertilizer seller, product, customer, sale, amount, land, crop or tax period. It does not cite or reproduce the underlying fertilizer exemption, give certificate requirements, or supply the memoranda it answers. It also supplies no application, issued permit, return, audit, assessment or later outcome.

Source posture and later use

The live 410.0300 annotation, in the 2026 revision of the Business Taxes Law Guide, closely preserves the two-paragraph rule, exemption examples, three statutory sections and March 12, 1952 date. It omits the internal memorandum posture, redacted recipient and prior memoranda, 1773 header, missing transaction and exemption records, and absence of an applied outcome. Its section 6015 quotation says Every seller who makes any retail sales or sales of tangible personal property; the supporting memorandum says retail sale or sales. This page preserves the original source wording below rather than silently adopting the live-page error.

A later July 16, 1993 calligrapher opinion supporting Annotation 515.0002.820 cited 410.0250, 410.0280 and 410.0300 for requiring a permit despite exempt public-display art sales, while distinguishing a seller whose every sale fit the interstate-commerce exclusion. That opinion concerns artwork and does not supply the missing fertilizer memoranda, exemption authority or applied outcome here.

CDTFA's Annotated Legal Opinions collection says the letters are summarized as annotations and that statutory law controls whenever a statute and annotation conflict. The official one-page 410.0300 PDF has a clean native text layer and one small page-1 stencil, so no OCR was required. Both fresh direct PDF downloads and both live-annotation downloads were byte-identical, and duplicate default PDF text extractions matched. The original-text section below remains byte-identical to its committed version and matches the fresh official extraction after removing only the extractor's terminal newline and form feed.

What this means for you

Fertilizer sellers and tax professionals

Do not assume that currently making only exempt sales eliminates registration duties. Under this historical memorandum, fertilizer remained a kind of property that could be taxable depending on the sale. Check current fertilizer, agricultural-use, resale, certificate, permit and filing rules, and document the facts supporting each exemption.

Common questions

Q: Did all-current-sales-exempt eliminate the permit duty?

A: No. The memorandum said fertilizer could be taxable in other retail-sale circumstances, so a fertilizer seller still needed a permit.

Q: What exempt uses did the source identify?

A: Sales for resale and fertilizer applied to land whose products would constitute food for human consumption. It did not cite the exemption provision or give certificate requirements.

Q: Why was a permit still required?

A: The memorandum treated the person as a seller under section 6014 and a retailer for any retail sales under section 6015, triggering section 6066.

Q: Did the source decide an identified seller's permit application?

A: No. It answers redacted memoranda in general terms and supplies no applicant, application, permit, return, audit or later outcome.

Q: Does the live annotation exactly reproduce the section 6015 quotation?

A: No. It says retail sales or sales; the supporting memorandum says retail sale or sales.

Citations and references

• California Revenue and Taxation Code sections 6014, 6015 and 6066 — cited or quoted in the 1952 memorandum
• Sales and Use Tax Annotation 515.0002.820 supporting opinion (July 16, 1993) — later citation in a different factual setting
• Underlying memoranda; fertilizer, seller, customer, resale, land, crop and exemption records; exemption authority or certificate; application; permit; returns; audit; assessment; and outcome — described or implicated but not included

Verbatim support

From the official March 12, 1952 Tax Counsel memorandum:

In answer to your memos X--------------, we advise that, in our opinion, a person selling fertilizer is required to hold a seller’s permit even though all sales may be exempt as sales for resale or for application to land, the products of which will constitute food for human consumption.

The fact that under certain circumstances retail sales of fertilizer are taxable requires, in our opinion, the holding of a seller’s permit pursuant to Section 6066 requiring all sellers to hold permits and Section 6014 defining seller.

Inasmuch as persons selling fertilizer are “sellers”, they are under Section 6015 “retailers” with respect to any retail sales made, that section providing in part that the term retailer includes “Every seller who makes any retail sale or sales of tangible personal property….”

Source

• Annotated Legal Opinions collection: CDTFA Annotated Legal Opinions
• Live annotation: Annotation 410.0300
• Original supporting opinion: 410.0300 PDF
• Later citation: 515.0002.820 PDF

Original ruling text

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

410.0300

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION
1773 Seller of fertilizer required to hold seller’s permit.

Sacramento
March 12, 1952
Mr. X------------------

E.H. Stetson

In answer to your memos X--------------, we advise that, in our opinion, a person selling fertilizer is required to hold a seller’s permit even though all sales may be exempt as sales for resale or for application to land, the products of which will constitute food for human consumption. The fact that under certain circumstances retail sales of fertilizer are taxable requires, in our opinion, the holding of a seller’s permit pursuant to Section 6066 requiring all sellers to hold permits and Section 6014 defining seller. Inasmuch as persons selling fertilizer are “sellers”, they are under Section 6015 “retailers” with respect to any retail sales made, that section providing in part that the term retailer includes “Every seller who makes any retail sale or sales of tangible personal property….”

EHS:ph