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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Sales And Use Tax Law
Revenue and Taxation Code
Division 2. Other Taxes
Part 1. Sales and Use Taxes
Chapter 1. General Provisions and Definitions
Section 6005
6005. "Person." "Person" includes any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, limited liability company, association, social club, fraternal organization, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, assignee for the benefit of creditors, trustee, trustee in bankruptcy, syndicate, the United States, this state, any county, city and county, municipality, district, or other political subdivision of the state, or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
History—Stats. 1945, p. 1722, operative July 1, 1945, added "trustee," and "the United States," substituted "joint venture," for "joint adventure," and "of the State" for "thereof." Stats. 1951, p. 2389, operative July 1, 1951, added "assignee for the benefit of creditors" and "trustee in bankruptcy." Stats. 1994, Ch. 1200, in effect September 30, 1994, substituted "partnership" for "copartnership" after "firm", added "limited liability company" after "venture", and substituted "state" for "State" after "this" and after "of the".
School districts.—A school district is a "person" as that term is used in the Sales and Use Tax Law, Los Angeles City High School District v. State Board of Equalization (1945) 71 Cal.App.2d 486.
Trustee in bankruptcy.—The amendment of this section in 1945 did not have the effect of imposing the sales tax on sales by a trustee in bankruptcy in liquidation of the bankrupt estate pursuant to court order. California State Board of Equalization v. Goggin (19514) 191 F.2d 726, cert. den. (1952) 342 U.S. 909. But see Debtor Reorganizers, Inc. v. State Board of Equalization (1976) 58 Cal.App.3d 691, summary following Section 6201.
Liquidation sales by trustees in bankruptcy.—A nondiscriminatory tax on a bankruptcy liquidation sale is not barred by the now discredited intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine, and there is no longer any constitutional impediment to imposition of a sales tax or a use tax on a bankruptcy liquidation sale. The sales and use tax does not discriminate against a bankruptcy trustee or those that they deal with, and the bankruptcy trustee is not so closely connected to the federal government that the two cannot be viewed as separate entities. California State Board of Equalization v. Sierra Summit, Inc. (1989) 490 U.S. 844.