California rarely stays quiet for long. In this episode of the SALTovation podcast, Aprio’s Meredith Smith and Stacey Roberts Chamberlain welcome back Michael Cataldo of Cataldo Tax Law to make sense of a slew of California tax developments. Two questions run through the conversation: how much of a multistate company’s income California gets to tax, and to which purchases — including software subscriptions — the state can now apply sales tax.
Along the way, the group discusses a court decision that lets a taxpayer step away from California’s single sales factor, asks whether the state’s apportionment rules still measure where business activity really happens, and unpacks a new ruling on when a trust beneficiary becomes taxable. The episode ends with discussion around a change that practitioners have watched for years: California is preparing to tax software as a service, with Colorado headed in the same direction. Learn what that means for multistate taxpayers and why more software and services could be pulled into the tax base once the state sees the revenue it generates. New to the series? Start with episode one, California Loses Case for Nonresident Filing (The Bindley Rule).