This story is likely to run in Sunday's June 7 print edition of The News Tribune. I'm posting it here, too, for you on-line only readers. Also, I have more room to put more information. Scroll down below the story for some e-mail correspondence I had with the Department of Revenue. They shed more light on the issue.

Also, here are some links that will come in handy for businesses, especially contractors and others in the resale business. This one will take you to the Washington Department of Revenue, so you can get the right forms.

BY Joseph Turner
The News Tribune
Washington tax collectors figure state and local governments are missing out on more than $100 million a year in unpaid sales taxes, so they’ve begun to overhaul the way merchants, builders, wholesalers and retail customers handle items that are purchased for resale at a later date.

Basically, it’s changing from “an honor system with audits” to a permit that must be obtained from the state Department of Revenue. It’s a huge change that will affect about 56,000 retailers and 19,000 wholesalers in Washington. Overall, some 190,000 businesses are going to be notified of the upcoming changes. And it’s all supposed to happen over the next seven months.

The new rules take effect Jan. 1, but “reseller permits” will be mailed out in September to most businesses that buy items for resale.

The problem is this: State law requires sales tax be paid only by the final customers. Some businesses don’t have to pay sales tax on their purchases if they plan to re-sell the items themselves at a later date and collect sales taxes from their own customers. But some businesses are not reselling the items. They’re using the items themselves. They’re not paying the sales tax, and they’re not collecting it.

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