When is the tax due? An asset sale will generally be subject to California sales taxes.This tax does not all go to the state, though. The election provides for no GST (or HST in the HST provinces) to be payable in respect of the purchase and sale of the assets and reduces the cash. In California, sales tax is generally imposed on an asset sale of a company unless the company being sold is a service business (where the "occasional sale". When all or part of the assets of a business are sold, PST applies to the assets that are taxable goods or software. Shares of a business are not taxable.