The Washington Legislative Session is now open, and with this being a “short session,” but that does not mean less bills, activity or hearings, but that they will be coming at a faster pace in a shorter amount of time.
Your Home, Your Business & Your Lifestyle
Here is a list of legislative bills that caught our attention:
🎯The link will take you to the page of the “status” of the bill,
🎯At the top of those pages is a Bill Summary
🎯To the right of each Bill is the button to submit your position or testimony.
❗(Make sure to check on the dates listed of the hearings that are scheduled as these are time-sensitive to submit your positions or testimony.)
Bills That Will Affect Your Home, Utilities & Affordability
📜House Bill 1921 | Road usage charge: Establishes a road usage charge for Washington motorists.
📜House Bill 1334 | Property tax cap: Triples the property tax growth limit.
📜House Bill 1870 | New property tax: Allows counties to impose a new property tax .
📜House Bill 2116 | Raising property tax limits: Increases schools’ local levy property tax ability by raising the cap on the maximum value a home can be taxed for school purposes.
📜House Bill 1480 | Tax on home sales: Allows counties to impose a local real estate excise tax.
📜House Bill 2027 | Another tax on home sales: Imposes a new real estate transfer tax of up to 3% on the sale of certain homes.
📜House Bill 1702 | Tax increase on utilities: Allows counties to impose an additional 3% tax on utilities.
📜House Bill 1517 | Electronic devices: Adds an additional tax on the sale of cell phones, smart watches and other devices.
📜House Bill 1581 | Phone services: Increases taxes on wired, wireless, and VoIP lines and for prepaid wireless services (988 tax).
📜House Bill 2046 | Capital gains: Taxes unrealized gains from intangible assets such as mutual funds, stocks, and bonds (wealth tax).
Bills That Will Affect Job Providers and Working Washingtonians
📜House Bill 2100 | Payroll tax: Creates a payroll tax of 5% on salaries above $125,000 for companies that gross more than $5 million, and employee wages higher than $7 million in the previous year, and have more than 20 employees.
📜Senate Bill 5796 | Another payroll tax: Creates a new payroll tax of 5% on salaries of $189,371 or more against the portion of salary above the Social Security wage limit for employers with more than $7 million in payroll expenses.
📜House Bill 1320 | B&O tax increases: Raises taxes 10-20% on more than a dozen types of job providers in Washington state.
📜House Bill 1560 | Executive compensation surcharge on hospitals: Creates a new tax on health care entities based on the salaries of their executives.
📜House Bill 1785 | Executive compensation surcharge for businesses: Imposes a surcharge on certain companies based on the salaries of their executives.
📜House Bill 2098 | Tech surcharge hike: Eliminates the cap on the advanced computing surcharge, drastically increasing the tax on tech companies. Right now, the cap is $75 million.
Bills that Might Affect Things You Enjoy:
📜House Bill 1607 | Bottle tax: Adds a 10-cent-per-beverage container tax.
📜Senate Bill 5576 | Short-term rentals: Imposes new sales tax on Airbnb, VRBO and other short-term rental homes.
📜House Bill 2079 | Alcoholic beverages: Increases taxes on wine, cider and locally brewed beer.
📜House Bill 2139 | Snowmobile fees: Increases snowmobile vehicle license fees by 50 percent.
📜House Bill 2068 | Taxing smokers and vapers: Places an additional $2-per-pack tax on cigarettes, increases the tax on vape products to 95% of the sale price, and increases the license fees for retailers who sell cigarettes and vape products.
📜House Bill 2382 | Another tax on smokers and vapers: Adds a $0.10-per-cigarette tax, raises the cigar tax from $0.65 to $0.85 per cigar, and statutorily changes the tax on vapor products from a volumetric tax ($0.27 or $0.09 per milliliter), to 95% of the sale price.
📜House Bill 2071 | Dating apps: Taxes owners of online dating applications.
📜House Bill 1386 | Guns and ammo: Imposes an 11% sales tax on firearms and ammunition.
