New York Digital Products Sales Tax Guide — 2026

“Digital products” covers eBooks, audiobooks, video downloads, online courses, streaming subscriptions, digital artwork, stock photos, music, and similar non-physical delivered goods. Whether New York taxes them depends on how the state classifies the product — “specified digital products”, “electronic transfer of canned software”, or a service. Rules vary more than for physical goods.

If taxable in New York, the product is subject to 4.00% state rate plus any applicable local rate based on the buyer's address.

Most states sort digital goods using the Streamlined Sales Tax definition of “specified digital products”, which splits them into three subcategories a state can tax or exempt independently:

• Digital audio-visual works — downloaded or streamed movies, shows, and recorded events. Streaming video subscriptions fall here.
• Digital audio works — downloaded or streamed music, podcasts, audiobooks, and ringtones. Streaming music subscriptions fall here.
• Digital books — eBooks. Newspapers, periodicals, blogs, and databases are excluded from the “book” definition and follow their own rules.

Because a state may tax one subcategory and exempt another, “are digital products taxable” rarely has a single yes/no answer. Where New York taxes a subcategory, the charge is subject to the 4.00% state rate plus any local rate at the buyer’s address. Software subscriptions (SaaS and electronically delivered “canned” software) sit outside this framework and follow New York’s separate software-taxability rule — see the SaaS guide for that determination.

Framework source: Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board — “Specified Digital Products” definition (SSUTA §332). date_retrieved: 2026-06-04. State-by-state taxability still varies; verify each subcategory with the New York Department of Revenue before invoicing.

• Specified digital products. Many states (adopting Streamlined Sales Tax definitions) tax SDPs — digital audio/video/books.
• Online courses and education. Most states treat live-instruction courses as non-taxable services but treat pre-recorded course access as taxable digital products. Watch for this split if you sell both.
• Subscriptions. Bundled subscription boxes with mixed digital + physical content are often taxed as a single taxable bundle — you can't allocate across taxable and non-taxable components unless the invoice separately states them.
• B2B vs B2C. Some states exempt B2B digital products when bought for resale or when the buyer has a direct-pay permit. Keep certificates on file.

• Treating all digital products the same across states — eBook tax treatment differs from SaaS, which differs from streaming.
• Bundling digital + physical goods without a line-item breakdown. Most states tax the full bundle at the physical rate if not itemized.
• Applying origin-based sourcing (your state's rate) when most states source digital products to the buyer's billing or shipping address.

New York sales tax nexus and economic nexus threshold: a business with no New York physical presence is presumed to be a vendor when, in the immediately preceding four sales tax quarters, its gross receipts from tangible personal property delivered into New York exceed $500,000 AND it made more than 100 such sales into New York. Unlike most states, New York uses AND logic -- both thresholds must be met. Gross receipts include taxable and exempt tangible-personal-property sales without expense deductions, and sales transactions include invoices, sales slips, contracts, or other sale memoranda, including sales for resale. New York says marketplace sales should be included in the threshold calculation; after crossing, a remote seller files for registration within 30 days and begins collection 20 days later. Marketplace providers collect New York State and local sales tax on facilitated taxable tangible-personal-property sales delivered to New York, and marketplace sellers remain responsible for non-facilitated sales and taxable transactions outside the marketplace-provider rule. New York Tax Department source data last retrieved 2026-06-08.

Read the full New York overview for thresholds, filing frequency, marketplace facilitator rules, and registration links. Use the nexus calculator to check whether you have crossed the threshold. For background on the post-Wayfair economic nexus framework, see the pillar guide.

• New York · SaaS
  Software-as-a-service sales tax rules
• New York · Thresholds
  Economic and transaction nexus thresholds
• New York · E-commerce
  General e-commerce sales tax rules