Was a charge for sending a photographic image through a remote electronic wire service subject to California sales tax?

Plain-English summary

A redacted general counsel and legislative advocate said a freelance photographer's physical photograph sale was understood to be taxable, but asked about a photograph transferred through what the inquiry called an electric wire service.

Senior Tax Counsel answered that tax did not apply to a charge for a photograph sent through a remote electronic wire service. The letter defined remote only to mean that transmission occurred from premises other than the receiver's. On that premise, it treated the photographic-image transfer as no transfer of tangible personal property, citing section 6006 only by comparison.

Source posture and live annotation

The letter does not reproduce the October 16 inquiry or identify an actual completed sale. It supplies no sender, receiver, freelance photographer, photograph, image format, wire-service operator, transmission equipment or path, contract, price, invoice, receiving-end print or other output, storage medium, return, audit, assessment or later outcome. It does not explain why the sender's location alone determines the property characterization or analyze tangible property created or delivered at the receiving end.

The live 420.0170 annotation, in the 2026 revision of the Business Taxes Law Guide, closely retains the photographic-image, remote-electronic-wire-service, no-tangible-property, nontaxable-charge, receiver-premises and November 26, 1991 points. It prints the grammatical sentence Charges for such service is nontaxable. It omits the internal-request posture, freelance physical-photo comparison, electric versus electronic wording, limited citation, missing transaction and technology facts, and absence of an applied outcome.

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 PDF has a clean native text layer and one small page-1 image used for letterhead rather than scanned text, so no OCR was required. Both fresh direct PDF downloads and both live-page downloads were byte-identical, duplicate default PDF text extractions matched, and the original-text section remains byte-identical to its committed version and fresh extraction after removal of only the extractor's terminal newline and form feed.

What this means for you

Image providers and tax professionals

Do not generalize this three-sentence 1991 answer to every digital-image transaction. Identify the delivery technology, sender and receiver locations, physical media or output, storage or access rights, license terms, bundled property and current law. The source itself grounds only its narrow remote-wire-service premise.

Common questions

Q: What made the historical transmission remote?

A: Only that it originated from premises other than the receiver's, under the letter's express definition.

Q: Why did the letter say the charge was nontaxable?

A: It concluded that the remote transmission transferred a photographic image but not tangible personal property.

Q: Did the source explain the wire-service technology?

A: No. It gives no equipment, format, transmission path, storage or receiving-end output facts.

Q: Did it decide downloads, cloud access or physical storage media?

A: No. None of those facts appears in the letter.

Q: Was there an identified price, return or audit result?

A: No. The source provides no completed transaction or applied outcome.

Citations and references

• California Revenue and Taxation Code section 6006 — cited only by comparison for the transfer concept
• October 16, 1991 inquiry; parties; photo; image format; wire-service technology; equipment; contracts; invoices; output; media; returns; audits; and outcomes — described or implicated but not included

Verbatim support

From the official November 26, 1991 Senior Tax Counsel letter:

Tax does not apply to a charge for a photograph sent through a remote electronic wire service.

By “remote” we mean that the transmission must occur from premises other than the receiver.

In such case, the transfer of the photographic image is not a transfer of tangible personal property. (Cf. Rev. & Tax. Code § 6006.)

Source

• Annotated Legal Opinions collection: CDTFA Annotated Legal Opinions
• Live annotation: Annotation 420.0170
• Original supporting opinion: 420.0170 PDF

Original ruling text

420.0170

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION
1020 N STREET, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
(P.O. BOX 942879, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 94279-0001)
(916) 445-6450

November 26, 1991

Mr. T--- W. N--General Counsel and Legislative Advocate
C--- N--- P--- A--XXXX --- ---, Suite XXX
---, CA XXXXX
Dear Mr. N---:
This is reply to your October 16, 1991 letter regarding the application of sales tax to the sale of a photograph. You note that you understand the sale of a photograph by a freelance photographer is subject to sales tax but the charge for the transfer of a photograph through an electric wire service is nontaxable. Tax does not apply to a charge for a photograph sent through a remote electronic wire service. By “remote” we mean that the transmission must occur from premises other than the receiver. In such case, the transfer of the photographic image is not a transfer of tangible personal property. (Cf. Rev. & Tax. Code § 6006.) We hope this answers your question; however, if you need further information, feel free to write again. Very truly yours,

Ronald L. Dick
Senior Tax Counsel

RLD:sr