2012 Washington Legislative Session: State Taxes

In double overtime, the Washington State Legislature ended the 2012 legislative session Wednesday morning, April 11, closing a roughly half-billion dollar shortfall for the two-year budget cycle.  The budget largely relies on a change in the state's accounting of state and local retail sales tax, the elimination of the first mortgage interest deduction for multi-state banks, and an increase in taxes on roll-your-own cigarettes.  There are a handful of favorable provisions, including an extension of the B&O exemptions for fruit, vegetable, dairy and seafood processing businesses and an extension of the sales and use tax exemption for equipment used in qualifying computer data centers.