Taken from California instructions from Form 540
You must use the Use Tax Worksheet found in the instructions to calculate your use tax liability if any of the following apply:
- You prefer to calculate the amount of use tax due based upon your actual purchases subject to use tax, rather than based on an estimate.
- You owe use tax on any item purchased for use in a trade or business and you are not registered or required to be registered with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to report sales or use tax.
- You owe use tax on purchases of individual items with a purchase price of $1,000 or more each.
If you have a combination of individual non-business items purchased for $1,000 or more each, and/or purchased for use in a trade of business in addition to individual, non-business items purchase for less than $1,000, you may either:
- Use the Use Tax Worksheet to compute use tax due on all purchases, or
- Use the Use Tax Worksheet to compute use tax due on all individual items purchased for $1,000 or more plus all items purchased for use in a trade of business.
- Use the Estimated Use Tax Table to estimate the use tax due on individual, non-business items purchased for less than $1,000, then add the amounts and report the total use tax on Line 91.
If you are permitted and would like to use the Estimated Use Tax Lookup Table instead, please click here.
For more information about Use Tax, please review the 540 Instructions for line 91.