BILL REQ. #:  S-0407.5 



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SENATE BILL 5501
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State of Washington62nd Legislature2011 Regular Session

By Senators Murray, Kilmer, Schoesler, Conway, Honeyford, Kohl-Welles, Keiser, Shin, Holmquist Newbry, and White

Read first time 01/27/11.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.



     AN ACT Relating to the taxation of employee meals provided without specific charge; adding a new section to chapter 82.04 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 82.08 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 82.12 RCW; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 82.04 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) This chapter does not apply to restaurants in respect to meals provided without specific charge to employees.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, the definitions in section 2 of this act apply.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 82.08 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The tax levied by RCW 82.08.020 does not apply to a meal provided without specific charge to an employee by a restaurant.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (a) "Meal" means one or more items of prepared food or beverages other than alcoholic beverages. For the purposes of this subsection, "alcoholic beverage" and "prepared food" have the same meanings as provided in RCW 82.08.0293.
     (b) "Restaurant" means any establishment having special space and accommodation where food and beverages are regularly sold to the public for immediate, but not necessarily on-site, consumption, but excluding grocery stores, mini-markets, and convenience stores. Restaurant includes, but is not limited to, lunch counters, diners, coffee shops, espresso shops or bars, concession stands or counters, delicatessens, and cafeterias. It also includes space and accommodations where food and beverages are sold to the public for immediate consumption that are located within hotels, motels, lodges, boarding houses, bed and breakfast facilities, hospitals, office buildings, movie theaters, and schools, colleges, or universities, if a separate charge is made for such food or beverages. Mobile sales units that sell food or beverages for immediate consumption within a place, the entrance to which is subject to an admission charge, are "restaurants." So too are public and private carriers, such as trains and vessels, that sell food or beverages for immediate consumption if a separate charge for the food and/or beverages is made. A restaurant is open to the public for purposes of this section if members of the public can be served as guests. "Restaurant" does not include businesses making sales through vending machines or through mobile sales units such as catering trucks or sidewalk vendors of food or beverage items.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 82.12 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The provisions of this chapter do not apply in respect to a meal provided without specific charge to an employee by a restaurant.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, the definitions in section 2 of this act apply.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   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 takes effect July 1, 2011.

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