Monday, May 18, 2026

Gavin Newsom, Going To Best Buy, Shopping For Software, As One Does

No opinion on the tax, but I think Gavin's entered his 'old man' phase.
Newsom has framed the effort as closing a fairness gap in the tax code. He pointed to a discrepancy in how software is taxed depending on how it is purchased.

“I’m at Best Buy often, and I’m paying sales tax on a lot of this pre-written software, and then I find out all my friends that aren’t near a Best Buy, they’re downloading it and they’re not paying sales tax. Well, how is that fair?” Newsom said during Friday’s press confrence.

The governor’s office says the majority of the impact will fall on business-to-business software transactions, which account for roughly 75% of the projected economic effect.
Can you point to where on your computer you are inserting this purchased software, Gavin?