North Carolina ruled that online subscription fees for accessing or using digital products—which include digital videos, books, and audiobooks—are taxable.

The bottom line: In the petitioned case, the taxpayers were using software applications and database systems for content delivery, but the customers' payments were specifically for accessing the digital content itself (not for the underlying software infrastructure that facilitates this delivery). And while some non-taxable services were included in these subscriptions, they were part of a bundled package with the taxable digital content and cannot be purchased separately.