California CDTFA Updates Pub 34: Motor Vehicle Dealers (3/2025)

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) has released an updated version of Publication 34: Motor Vehicle Dealers in March 2025. This guide helps motor vehicle dealers understand and comply with California’s sales and use tax laws for vehicle sales, leases, and use. The March 2025 update incorporates recent legislative changes, including those effective in 2025 and beyond, such as restrictions on bad debt deductions and the ongoing transition for used vehicle dealers to pay sales tax directly to the DMV. This blog post provides a comprehensive overview of the key updates and guidance from the publication to help dealers stay compliant. Background on Publication 34 Publication 34: Motor Vehicle Dealers covers tax obligations for sales, leases, and use of vehicles, including exemptions, reporting requirements,...

CDFTA Releases Updated Pub 34, Motor Vehicle Dealers

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) has updated Publication 34 (Motor Vehicle Dealers), to include 2020 legislation that, effective 1/1/2021, imposes new reporting and payments requirements on certain used vehicle dealers. The new discussion, entitled "Used Vehicle Dealers" (in the section on "Motor Vehicle Sales"), provides in part that effective 1/1/2021, certain used vehicle dealers are required to pay sales tax on their retail sales of vehicles when a vehicle registration application is submitted to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The CDTFA previously discussed these changes in California Department of Tax and Fee Administration Special Notice L-766, 11/01/2020. The CDTFA also made a number of nonsubstantive changes to the publication. Publication 34 is designed to help motor vehicle dealers understand California’s sales and...

                In the attached audio clip (click on photo above to listen), Spidell Publishing's "California Minute" discusses the letters the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), formerly the California Board of Equalization, is sending out to individuals about use tax obligations, and what those letters might mean. Spidell Publishing, Inc. has been a critical source of California tax information for tax professionals since 1975, promoting ideas, references, solutions, and guidance, plus news and commentary covering all aspects of tax and its administration....