US_Utah – Expands the Sales Tax Taxability Scope: Streaming Services, Prewritten Software, and Digital Content  

Background 

The Utah Senate approved Senate Bill 162 on March 23, 2026. This bill amends sales and use tax provisions for online transactions. Approved bill clarifies under what terms the digital services are exempted from the sales and use tax; expands the sales and use tax base for online services, and sheds much-awaited clarification on what “is actually” covered under the sales and use tax provisions when it comes to the provision of digital services, software products, and access to them. 

Utah State had previously adopted bills that tax digital products transferred electronically, and prewritten software, regardless of delivery method. The lastly adopted bill expands the tax base to include: 

• access to digital audio-visual works, digital audio works, digital books, and gaming services, including the streaming of, or subscription for access to, that content even without a download; and 
• the storage, use, or enjoyment of prewritten computer software transmitted digitally, as well as supplier-hosted prewritten computer software. 

Effective Date 

The adopted bill becomes effective on July 1, 2026. 

Sales and Use Tax – Impact 

The adopted bill expanded the tax base to include service providers in the taxation network that “merely” provide streaming-only access where there is no transfer (e.g., download) or offline-use option available. Subscription-based models that included a transfer of digital product or offline access to a product were already taxable. 

 By July 1, 2026, mere access to digital audio or video products shall be taxable. 

Streaming providers that permit on-demand streaming access to digital content represent one of the primary targeted economic groups that belong to the newly added taxable entities. 

The bill also introduced a long-needed clarification when it comes to the taxability treatment of the prewritten computer software, in cases where it is, e.g., only available through download, or cloud-access, or both. The bill clearly indicates that the prewritten computer software is taxable regardless of the delivery(access to it) method. 

What to do next 

Digital service providers that provide or facilitate access to streaming-only digital content should be aware that starting from July 1, 2026, their “mere” access to digital content(facilitated by them without transfer of the content) will most probably be a taxable service. 

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