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Contributors
Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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It might pay to know your local sales tax rate – literally, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Some shoppers may save money on sales tax due to a change starting July 1 on how the tax is collected on shipped and delivered goods.
Beginning next month sales taxes on items that are shipped or delivered will be based on where the customer receives the product instead of the point from which it was shipped.
The Department of Revenue points out that knowing your local sales tax rate could save you money if that rate is lower than the rate where the store or its warehouse is located.
For example, if an Olympia resident buys a couch and the couch is shipped from the retailer’s Kent warehouse then the appropriate sales tax rate would be the 8.4 percent rate for Olympia, rather than the 9 percent applicable in Kent.
The sales tax rate for Tacoma residents is 8.8 percent, according to the Department of Revenue's Web site.
But in some unincorporated areas that rate can be lower, said Mike Gowyrlow, Department of Revenue spokesman.
To calculate the rate for your area, go here.
The change in how the state collects sales tax was required for Washington to join a nationwide effort to standardize the way each state taxes goods, the DOR reports.
“We want the public to be aware of these changes, which in some cases will mean lower sales tax rates,” Revenue Director Cindi Holmstrom said. “We’ve been working hard to educate businesses on the change and want to make sure consumers know about it too.”
