California receipt requirements

Sales tax at a glance

State rate

6%

Combined with local

6% – 17% combined

Sourcing

Mixed — in-state and remote sales are sourced differently

Does tax have to be separately stated?

Sales tax in California is imposed on the retailer, and what the customer pays is "sales tax reimbursement." The CDTFA treats reimbursement as agreed when the amount is separately stated on the invoice or receipt, so the separate line is what makes the charge collectable.

Whatever the rule, print it as its own line. Separately stating tax is what lets a reviewer isolate the pre-tax cost, and it is the mechanism most state statutes use to let a seller exclude the tax from gross receipts. The display conventions are covered here.

Exempt and specially rated categories

• ·Groceries for home consumption exempt
• ·Prescription medicines exempt
• ·Cold food to go generally exempt
• ·Farm machinery partially exempt

A basket that mixes an exempt item with a taxable one needs a per-line tax flag and separate taxable and non-taxable subtotals, or the tax line cannot be checked against the lines it came from.

Rent receipts in California

No statute requires a landlord to issue a rent receipt. California's general debtor-creditor rule does let a person who performs an obligation demand a written receipt, so a tenant can ask and expect one, but it is not a rent-specific duty.

The two fields landlords most often omit are the period the payment covers and the unit number. The full field list is here, and the statutory format is in the rent receipt spec.