Am I Due a Sales Tax Refund?

In California, all sales are taxable unless the law provides a specific exemption. In most cases, taxable sales are of tangible personal property, which the law defines as an item that can be seen, weighed, measured, felt, or touched.  Restaurants and retailers also subject to a TBID assessment may choose to pass that expense on to customers similar to a surcharge.

Below is an example of the computation of a hypothetical sales tax on a taxable sale that includes a restaurant TBID assessment passed through to a customer. The tax was applied to the total selling price, including the TBID assessment. The example assumes an 8.5% sales tax rate (your actual tax rate may differ):

Example

• Pizza = $14.00
• Side salad = $4.00
• Wine = $8.00
• Subtotal = $26.00
• TBID (1.5%) = $0.39
• Total sale = $26.39
• Sales tax [8.5% × $26.39] = $2.24
• Total due= $28.63

Unter this hypothetical the restaurant paid California sales tax on the TBID assessment and may qualify for a refund.