Sales tax on rent in WA? (Yakima: apartments, renter, attorneys)

[cringer]

I currently live in Phoenix and pay sales tax on the rent for my apartment. It varies from city to city here. Does anyone know if this is the case in Washington? If so, where could I find information on this?

[irrational exuberance]

You only pay sales tax on items you purchase or some services. There is also a use tax which is just like a sales tax for people who are exempt from sales tax but use products in WA state. Its really complex but this is a summary of it

[haggardhouseelf]

SSShhhhhh!!!! Don't say this any louder! Don't give them any ideas!!! We've rented in Washington (King County) since March of 2007 and we have never paid any kind of tax on our rent. I want it to stay that way... since we pay too much tax on everything else!

Today my son ordered a video game online. S&H was $2... sales tax because we lived in WA was $3.50!!!

I went to Target and bought art supplies for my kid's project. I spent $30. They then tacked another $4 onto my bill for tax!

This happens again and again and again until by the end of the month I have spent a hundred or more dollars on tax! I've actually never sat down and figured it out... it might be more. I don't think I want to know...

And then they want to spend 7.5 million dollars to supposedly suicide-proof a bridge. I'm just glad I don't own property here... because property taxes are even worse...

[allforcats]

There is no sales tax on rental amounts here.

[diggitydot]

When we moved from WA to the Phoenix area we were totally gobsmacked that they taxed rent.

[cringer]

Thanks for the responses. That's good to know they don't tax rent considering how expensive apartments are WA to begin with.

[chris]

taxing rent? WOW! Must be a good reason for it (immigration issues to pay for social services my guess)...

The only taxes for a renter I can think of in recent memory was the car tab tax for the monorail (King County about $300), that's about it.

[missyM]

They talked about doing this in Yakima. I don't think it went over very well w/the landlords. Individual cities can levy any tax they want, so be sure to check the municipality before you dive in.

[icainc]

Sale Tax is for tangible items, products or goods that you buy to own.

Use Tax is for business or consumers who buy intrastate tangible item(s), product(s) or goods and don't pay taxes on the tangible item(s), product(s) or goods they bought at wholesale, then using these intrastate tangible item(s), product(s) or goods within the state for their own use.

Services Tax is a tax that a business pays (not the consumer) on services they provide. Examples of services are: Warranties, Cell phone services, telephone service, labor, installations, repairs, and etc. Now this don't mean that businesses will adhere to this. Some businesses will charge the sales tax in order to avoid paying a higher B&O tax and no service tax at all. This is not legal, but they still do it and get away with it. Some Big Companies like AT&T, Sprint, Qwest, DELL, Hewlett Packard, and others charge sales tax on services. These services include telephone service, cell phone services, and warranties.

About 20 years ago I purchased two car warranties and was charged sales tax on these warranties. Well, someone filed a class action lawsuit about this practice. It went to court in Thurston County and after it was all said and done with, the court found it was unconstitutional to charge sales tax on services. The State of Washington and the businesses that charged the sales tax ended up having paying back everyone back that filed a claim and had paid sales taxes on their warranties.

The attorneys who sued made out like bandits, the State of Washington paid out millions in legal cost not to mention the sales taxes they had to give back, the business where held accountable for service and B&O taxes that they did not remit to the State of Washington, and the consumer well they gained back a fraction of their taxes. I was paid the sales tax back on only one of my warranties.