H-3687              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1583

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Representatives Sommers, Grimm, Tilly, Hastings, Braddock, Appelwick, Niemi and Long

Read first time 1/20/86 and referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

AN ACT Relating to use tax collection; and amending RCW 82.12.040.

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

        Sec. 1.  Section 82.12.040, chapter 15, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 11, chapter 299, Laws of 1971 ex. sess. and RCW 82.12.040 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Every person who maintains in this state a place of business or a stock of goods shall obtain from the department a certificate of registration, and shall, at the time of making sales, or making transfers of either possession or title or both, of tangible personal property for use in this state, collect from the purchasers or transferees the tax imposed under this chapter.  For the purposes of this chapter, the phrase "person who maintains in this state a place of business" shall include:

(a) Each person engaging in the solicitation of sales and/or taking of orders by sales agents or traveling representatives.

(b) Each person soliciting sales and/or taking orders by means of advertising which is broadcast from, printed at, or distributed from a location in this state if the advertising is intended to be disseminated to consumers located in this state and is only secondarily disseminated to bordering jurisdictions.

(c) Each person soliciting orders by mail if the solicitations are substantial and recurring and if the retailer;

(i) Benefits from any banking, financing, debt collection, telecommunication, or marketing activities occurring in this state; or

(ii) Benefits from the location in this state of authorized installation, servicing, or repair facilities.

(d) Each person owned or controlled by the same interests which own or control any retailer engaged in business in the same or a similar line of business in this state.

(2) Every person who engages in this state in the business of acting as an independent selling agent for persons who do not hold a valid certificate of registration, and who receives compensation by reason of sales of tangible personal property of his principals made for use in this state, shall, at the time such sales are made, collect from the purchasers the tax imposed under this chapter, and for that purpose shall be deemed a retailer as defined in this chapter.

(3) The tax required to be collected by this chapter shall be deemed to be held in trust by the retailer until paid to the department and any retailer who appropriates or converts the tax collected to his own use or to any use other than the payment of the tax provided herein to the extent that the money required to be collected is not available for payment on the due date as prescribed shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.  In case any seller fails to collect the tax herein imposed or having collected the tax, fails to pay the same to the department in the manner prescribed, whether such failure is the result of his own acts or the result of acts or conditions beyond his control, he shall nevertheless, be personally liable to the state for the amount of such tax.

(4) Any retailer who refunds, remits, or rebates to a purchaser, or transferee, either directly or indirectly, and by whatever means, all or any part of the tax levied by this chapter((, or makes in any form of advertising, verbal or otherwise, any statements which might infer that he is absorbing the tax or paying the tax for the purchaser or transferee by an adjustment of prices, or at a price including the tax, or in any other manner whatsoever)) shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.