CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

 

                        HOUSE BILL 2593

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        54th Legislature

                      1996 Regular Session

Passed by the House February 9, 1996

  Yeas 91   Nays 0

 

 

 

 

Speaker of the

       House of Representatives

 

Passed by the Senate March 7, 1996

  Yeas 49   Nays 0

               CERTIFICATE

 

I, Timothy A. Martin, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is HOUSE BILL 2593 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth.

 

 

 

 

President of the Senate

 

                               Chief Clerk

 

 

Approved Place Style On Codes above, and Style Off Codes below.

                                     FILED

          

 

 

Governor of the State of Washington

                        Secretary of State

                       State of Washington


                  _______________________________________________

 

                                  HOUSE BILL 2593

                  _______________________________________________

 

                     Passed Legislature - 1996 Regular Session

 

State of Washington              54th Legislature             1996 Regular Session

 

By Representatives Schoesler, Mason, B. Thomas and Boldt; by request of Department of Revenue

 

Read first time 01/15/96.  Referred to Committee on Finance.

 

Changing the taxation of railroad-related businesses.



     AN ACT Relating to taxation of railroad-related businesses; amending RCW 82.16.010 and 82.16.020; and declaring an emergency.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

 

     Sec. 1.  RCW 82.16.010 and 1994 c 163 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:

     For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise required by the context:

     (1) "Railroad business" means the business of operating any railroad, by whatever power operated, for public use in the conveyance of persons or property for hire.  It shall not, however, include any business herein defined as an urban transportation business.

     (2) "Express business" means the business of carrying property for public hire on the line of any common carrier operated in this state, when such common carrier is not owned or leased by the person engaging in such business.

     (3) "Railroad car business" means the business of ((renting, leasing or)) operating stock cars, furniture cars, refrigerator cars, fruit cars, poultry cars, tank cars, sleeping cars, parlor cars, buffet cars, tourist cars, or any other kinds of cars used for transportation of property or persons upon the line of any railroad operated in this state when such railroad is not owned or leased by the person engaging in such business.

     (4) "Water distribution business" means the business of operating a plant or system for the distribution of water for hire or sale.

     (5) "Light and power business" means the business of operating a plant or system for the generation, production or distribution of electrical energy for hire or sale and/or for the wheeling of electricity for others.

     (6) "Telegraph business" means the business of affording telegraphic communication for hire.

     (7) "Gas distribution business" means the business of operating a plant or system for the production or distribution for hire or sale of gas, whether manufactured or natural.

     (8) "Motor transportation business" means the business (except urban transportation business) of operating any motor propelled vehicle by which persons or property of others are conveyed for hire, and includes, but is not limited to, the operation of any motor propelled vehicle as an auto transportation company (except urban transportation business), common carrier or contract carrier as defined by RCW 81.68.010 and 81.80.010:  PROVIDED, That "motor transportation business" shall not mean or include the transportation of logs or other forest products exclusively upon private roads or private highways.

     (9) "Urban transportation business" means the business of operating any vehicle for public use in the conveyance of persons or property for hire, insofar as (a) operating entirely within the corporate limits of any city or town, or within five miles of the corporate limits thereof, or (b) operating entirely within and between cities and towns whose corporate limits are not more than five miles apart or within five miles of the corporate limits of either thereof.  Included herein, but without limiting the scope hereof, is the business of operating passenger vehicles of every type and also the business of operating cartage, pickup, or delivery services, including in such services the collection and distribution of property arriving from or destined to a point within or without the state, whether or not such collection or distribution be made by the person performing a local or interstate line-haul of such property.

     (10) "Public service business" means any of the businesses defined in subdivisions (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), and (9) or any business subject to control by the state, or having the powers of eminent domain and the duties incident thereto, or any business hereafter declared by the legislature to be of a public service nature, except telephone business as defined in RCW 82.04.065 and low-level radioactive waste site operating companies as redefined in RCW 81.04.010.  It includes, among others, without limiting the scope hereof:  Airplane transportation, boom, dock, ferry, pipe line, toll bridge, toll logging road, water transportation and wharf businesses.

     (11) "Tugboat business" means the business of operating tugboats, towboats, wharf boats or similar vessels in the towing or pushing of vessels, barges or rafts for hire.

     (12) "Gross income" means the value proceeding or accruing from the performance of the particular public service or transportation business involved, including operations incidental thereto, but without any deduction on account of the cost of the commodity furnished or sold, the cost of materials used, labor costs, interest, discount, delivery costs, taxes, or any other expense whatsoever paid or accrued and without any deduction on account of losses.

     (13) The meaning attributed, in chapter 82.04 RCW, to the term "tax year," "person," "value proceeding or accruing," "business," "engaging in business," "in this state," "within this state," "cash discount" and "successor" shall apply equally in the provisions of this chapter.

 

     Sec. 2.  RCW 82.16.020 and 1989 c 302 s 204 are each amended to read as follows:

     (1) There is levied and there shall be collected from every person a tax for the act or privilege of engaging within this state in any one or more of the businesses herein mentioned.  The tax shall be equal to the gross income of the business, multiplied by the rate set out after the business, as follows:

     (a) ((Railroad,)) Express, ((railroad car,)) sewerage collection, and telegraph businesses:  Three and six-tenths percent;

     (b) Light and power business:  Three and sixty-two one-hundredths percent;

     (c) Gas distribution business:  Three and six-tenths percent;

     (d) Urban transportation business:  Six-tenths of one percent;

     (e) Vessels under sixty-five feet in length, except tugboats, operating upon the waters within the state:  Six-tenths of one percent;

     (f) Motor transportation, railroad, railroad car, and tugboat businesses, and all public service businesses other than ones mentioned above:  One and eight-tenths of one percent;

     (g) Water distribution business:  Four and seven-tenths percent.

     (2) An additional tax is imposed equal to the rate specified in RCW 82.02.030 multiplied by the tax payable under subsection (1) of this section.

     (3) Twenty percent of the moneys collected under subsection (1) of this section on water distribution businesses and sixty percent of the moneys collected under subsection (1) of this section on sewerage collection businesses shall be deposited in the public works assistance account created in RCW 43.155.050.

 

     NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3.  This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately.

 


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