Good afternoon Readers,

The digital goods tax is going into effect on July 26--less than two months away.  For sellers of various digital products, such as video games, digital movies, digital music, ringtones, online subscriptions and other online services, you will have to charge sales tax to customers located in Washington state and remit it to the Department of Revenue.  You will have to set up a way to collect the tax at time of purchase and base the tax rate on the location of the customer.

The Dept. of Revenue is the state agency that regulates this activity and will be the one implementing this tax.  They are setting up small group meetings with WTIA members and others this month to get a handle on how sellers of digital goods transact business and help them comply with the new law.

Dept. of Revenue has scheduled two stakeholder meetings in July to get broader input.  Here is the link to the DOR website announcing the meetings:  http://www.dor.wa.gov/Content/GetAFormOrPublication/PublicationBySubject/TaxTopics/DPStakeholders.aspx

These will be held July 14 from 10 a.m. to noon in Burien and July 15 from 10 a.m. to noon in Olympia.

For additional information, there is more from Dept. of Revenue here:  http://dor.wa.gov/Content/GetAFormOrPublication/PublicationBySubject/TaxTopics/DigitalProducts.aspx

There is a Q&A page you can access at that link if you are unfamiliar with how this tax will be applied.  While this new requirement will require changes in how sellers of digital goods do business, it does lower B&O taxes for companies that have to charge and collect the sales tax on digital products.

Please contact me at Lmcmurran@washingtontechnology.org if you have any questions or concerns or wish to get involved in this process.