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Proposed B&O tax changes draw wide support and opposition over scale and scope

3040866 · April 16, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

A proposed substitute to SB 5815 would raise core B&O tax rates, expand surcharges on advanced computing and financial institutions, add a top‑tier surcharge and limit an investment‑income deduction; staff estimated multi‑billion dollar revenue gains while industry groups warned of steep effective increases.

Senate Bill 5815, in a proposed substitute, would change Washington’s business & occupation (B&O) tax structure by increasing base rates for major B&O classifications, expanding and raising certain surcharges, and limiting an investment‑income deduction to incidental income, Ways & Means staff told the committee at a briefing on April 16.

Staff explained four main components: modest increases to base B&O rates for retailing and manufacturing; an increase to the financial‑institution surcharge and a substantially larger increase to the advanced‑computing surcharge (with a cap raised from $9 million to $50 million); creation of an additional 0.5% surcharge on taxpayers with more than $250 million in Washington taxable income applying to amounts…

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