Because they can be classified as operating expenses, the answer to 'are merchant fees tax deductible' is usually yes. Your business pays fees to both the card issuer and card network processor to accept credit card payments.
Unlike many other states, California does not tax services unless they are an integral part of a taxable transfer of property.
These expenses fall under the category of “miscellaneous expenses”, where you'll be allowed to describe them as “credit card processing fees”.
Credit card processing fees encompass three types of fees (interchange, assessment and payment processing) that get distributed to three separate financial institutions (issuing bank for the card, credit card network and payment processor) involved in facilitating the card payment process.