Maine extends its sales tax to streaming services from 1 January 2026

What changed in detail

Maine LD 210 (H.P. 132) is the supplemental budget enacted as Public Law 2025, chapter 388. The Governor approved it on 20 June 2025. Part G of the law changes the sales tax base:

• Sec. G-9 enacts 36 MRSA § 1752, sub-§ 1-P, which defines digital audiovisual and digital audio services. These are the electronic transfer of digital audiovisual works and digital audio works to an end user with a right of less than permanent use, including when the right depends on continued payment or a subscription. A person who receives the product for further commercial broadcast, licensing or distribution is not an end user.
• Sec. G-33 adds these services to the definition of taxable services in § 1752, sub-§ 17-B. It also brings cable and satellite television or radio services, telecommunications services, installation and repair of telecommunications equipment, and ancillary services into that definition.
• Sec. G-47 repeals 36 MRSA chapter 358, the Service Provider Tax, which had taxed many of those services separately.
• Sec. G-48 applies Part G to sales on or after 1 January 2026.

Taxable services are taxed at the general sales tax rate of 5.5% under § 1811.

What it means

Part G has been in force since 1 January 2026. Streaming subscriptions sold to Maine customers carry 5.5% sales tax.

The definition turns on a right of less than permanent use. Rented or subscription streams are covered. A purchase that grants permanent use falls outside this definition.

For telecom and pay-TV providers, the change is administrative as much as substantive. They moved from Service Provider Tax returns to sales tax returns, and the bundling and sourcing rules in Part G now decide which charges are taxed.