Reference data as of August 2026. Rates, thresholds, and agency names change — verify anything time-sensitive against the current authority before relying on it. We name agencies but do not link to third-party sites.
- Sales tax administered by
- Washington Department of Revenue
- Statewide base rate
- 6.5% — local rates stack on top and are generally sourced to the delivery address.
- Economic nexus (remote sellers)
- $100,000 in sales
- Filing cadence
- Monthly, quarterly, or annually by liability
- Employer / payroll registration
- Washington Employment Security Department
- Entity registration
- Washington Secretary of State
- What trips people up
- No income tax, but the Business and Occupation tax applies to gross receipts by activity classification and is reported alongside sales tax.
- Other business tax
- Business and Occupation (B&O) Tax — levied on gross receipts, with no deduction for cost of goods, labor, or any other expense, payable by the business. This is a separate filing from sales tax, with its own registration and its own calendar.
Washington's Business and Occupation (B&O) Tax
the rate depends on the activity classification — retailing, wholesaling, service, manufacturing — and a business doing more than one reports under more than one. It is filed alongside sales tax on the same return.
Because it is calculated on revenue rather than on profit, a business here can owe it in a year it lost money. The bookkeeping consequence is specific: because there is no deduction for costs, a business with thin margins pays B&O in years it loses money. Revenue has to be split by activity classification in the books, or the return is guesswork. That is a chart-of-accounts decision rather than a year-end adjustment, which is why we set it up during onboarding rather than discovering it at filing time.
How we handle Washington in your books
We track your Washington taxable sales against the $100,000 in sales threshold, keep the liability account reconciled to what you actually collected, and prepare and file the return on your assigned cadence. When collected tax does not tie to the return, that gap is a real liability — we find it during the monthly close rather than at year-end.
Either way, the goal is the same — clean, reconciled books your CPA can work from. See how sales tax filing support works or browse everything for Washington.
White Glove Accounting is a bookkeeping firm — not a licensed CPA firm, public accountancy firm, or registered tax preparer. We keep your books clean so your CPA or tax preparer can do their job. Filing deadlines, penalties, nexus determinations, and the acceptance of any return or record are determined solely by the applicable taxing authorities and by your own licensed professionals. Requirements change and vary by jurisdiction; outcomes, timelines, and savings are not guaranteed and will differ by client.
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