BILL REQ. #:  S-0229.2 

Read first time 01/18/2005.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to the taxation of temporary staffing services; amending RCW 82.04.460, 82.04.290, and 82.08.054; reenacting and amending RCW 82.04.190 and 82.08.050; adding a new section to chapter 82.04 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 82.08 RCW; creating a new section; 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) Upon every person engaging in this state in the business of providing staffing services; as to such persons the amount of tax with respect to such business shall be equal to the gross income of the business, multiplied by the rate of 0.484 percent.
     (2) For the purpose of this section, "staffing services" means an arrangement in which the taxpayer recruits and hires employees from the labor market and assigns them on a temporary basis to perform services for another to support, or supplement, the customer's work force, or to provide assistance in special work situations such as employee absences, skill shortages, and seasonal workloads, or to perform special assignments or projects, all under the direction and supervision of the customer. "Staffing services" does not include permanent employee leasing or permanent employee placement services.

Sec. 2   RCW 82.04.460 and 2004 c 174 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Any person rendering services taxable under RCW 82.04.290 ((or)), 82.04.2908, or section 1 of this act and maintaining places of business both within and without this state which contribute to the rendition of such services shall, for the purpose of computing tax liability under RCW 82.04.290 ((or)), 82.04.2908, or section 1 of this act, apportion to this state that portion of the person's gross income which is derived from services rendered within this state. Where such apportionment cannot be accurately made by separate accounting methods, the taxpayer shall apportion to this state that proportion of the taxpayer's total income which the cost of doing business within the state bears to the total cost of doing business both within and without the state.
     (2) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (1) of this section, persons doing business both within and without the state who receive gross income from service charges, as defined in RCW 63.14.010 (relating to amounts charged for granting the right or privilege to make deferred or installment payments) or who receive gross income from engaging in business as financial institutions within the scope of chapter 82.14A RCW (relating to city taxes on financial institutions) shall apportion or allocate gross income taxable under RCW 82.04.290 to this state pursuant to rules promulgated by the department consistent with uniform rules for apportionment or allocation developed by the states.
     (3) The department shall by rule provide a method or methods of apportioning or allocating gross income derived from sales of telephone services taxed under this chapter, if the gross proceeds of sales subject to tax under this chapter do not fairly represent the extent of the taxpayer's income attributable to this state. The rules shall be, so far as feasible, consistent with the methods of apportionment contained in this section and shall require the consideration of those facts, circumstances, and apportionment factors as will result in an equitable and constitutionally permissible division of the services.

Sec. 3   RCW 82.04.190 and 2004 c 174 s 4 and 2004 c 2 s 8 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
     "Consumer" means the following:
     (1) Any person who purchases, acquires, owns, holds, or uses any article of tangible personal property irrespective of the nature of the person's business and including, among others, without limiting the scope hereof, persons who install, repair, clean, alter, improve, construct, or decorate real or personal property of or for consumers other than for the purpose (a) of resale as tangible personal property in the regular course of business or (b) of incorporating such property as an ingredient or component of real or personal property when installing, repairing, cleaning, altering, imprinting, improving, constructing, or decorating such real or personal property of or for consumers or (c) of consuming such property in producing for sale a new article of tangible personal property or a new substance, of which such property becomes an ingredient or component or as a chemical used in processing, when the primary purpose of such chemical is to create a chemical reaction directly through contact with an ingredient of a new article being produced for sale or (d) purchases for the purpose of consuming the property purchased in producing ferrosilicon which is subsequently used in producing magnesium for sale, if the primary purpose of such property is to create a chemical reaction directly through contact with an ingredient of ferrosilicon;
     (2)(a) Any person engaged in any business activity taxable under RCW 82.04.290 or 82.04.2908; (b) any person who purchases, acquires, or uses any telephone service as defined in RCW 82.04.065, other than for resale in the regular course of business; (c) any person who purchases, acquires, or uses any service defined in RCW 82.04.050(2)(a) or any amusement and recreation service defined in RCW 82.04.050(3)(a), other than for resale in the regular course of business; ((and)) (d) any person who is an end user of software; and (e) any person who purchases, acquires, or uses staffing services to perform any service defined as a retail sale in RCW 82.04.050;
     (3) Any person engaged in the business of contracting for the building, repairing or improving of any street, place, road, highway, easement, right of way, mass public transportation terminal or parking facility, bridge, tunnel, or trestle which is owned by a municipal corporation or political subdivision of the state of Washington or by the United States and which is used or to be used primarily for foot or vehicular traffic including mass transportation vehicles of any kind as defined in RCW 82.04.280, in respect to tangible personal property when such person incorporates such property as an ingredient or component of such publicly owned street, place, road, highway, easement, right of way, mass public transportation terminal or parking facility, bridge, tunnel, or trestle by installing, placing or spreading the property in or upon the right of way of such street, place, road, highway, easement, bridge, tunnel, or trestle or in or upon the site of such mass public transportation terminal or parking facility;
     (4) Any person who is an owner, lessee or has the right of possession to or an easement in real property which is being constructed, repaired, decorated, improved, or otherwise altered by a person engaged in business, excluding only (a) municipal corporations or political subdivisions of the state in respect to labor and services rendered to their real property which is used or held for public road purposes, and (b) the United States, instrumentalities thereof, and county and city housing authorities created pursuant to chapter 35.82 RCW in respect to labor and services rendered to their real property. Nothing contained in this or any other subsection of this definition shall be construed to modify any other definition of "consumer";
     (5) Any person who is an owner, lessee, or has the right of possession to personal property which is being constructed, repaired, improved, cleaned, imprinted, or otherwise altered by a person engaged in business;
     (6) Any person engaged in the business of constructing, repairing, decorating, or improving new or existing buildings or other structures under, upon, or above real property of or for the United States, any instrumentality thereof, or a county or city housing authority created pursuant to chapter 35.82 RCW, including the installing or attaching of any article of tangible personal property therein or thereto, whether or not such personal property becomes a part of the realty by virtue of installation; also, any person engaged in the business of clearing land and moving earth of or for the United States, any instrumentality thereof, or a county or city housing authority created pursuant to chapter 35.82 RCW. Any such person shall be a consumer within the meaning of this subsection in respect to tangible personal property incorporated into, installed in, or attached to such building or other structure by such person, except that consumer does not include any person engaged in the business of constructing, repairing, decorating, or improving new or existing buildings or other structures under, upon, or above real property of or for the United States, or any instrumentality thereof, if the investment project would qualify for sales and use tax deferral under chapter 82.63 RCW if undertaken by a private entity;
     (7) Any person who is a lessor of machinery and equipment, the rental of which is exempt from the tax imposed by RCW 82.08.020 under RCW 82.08.02565, with respect to the sale of or charge made for tangible personal property consumed in respect to repairing the machinery and equipment, if the tangible personal property has a useful life of less than one year. Nothing contained in this or any other subsection of this section shall be construed to modify any other definition of "consumer"; and
     (8) Any person engaged in the business of cleaning up for the United States, or its instrumentalities, radioactive waste and other byproducts of weapons production and nuclear research and development.

Sec. 4   RCW 82.04.290 and 2004 c 174 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Upon every person engaging within this state in the business of providing international investment management services, as to such persons, the amount of tax with respect to such business shall be equal to the gross income or gross proceeds of sales of the business multiplied by a rate of 0.275 percent.
     (2) Upon every person engaging within this state in any business activity other than ((or in addition to those enumerated in RCW 82.04.230, 82.04.240, 82.04.250, 82.04.255, 82.04.260, 82.04.270, 82.04.298, 82.04.2905, 82.04.280, 82.04.2907, 82.04.272, 82.04.2906, and 82.04.2908, and)) an activity taxed explicitly under another section in this chapter or subsection (1) of this section; as to such persons the amount of tax on account of such activities shall be equal to the gross income of the business multiplied by the rate of 1.5 percent.
     (3) Subsection (2) of this section includes, among others, and without limiting the scope hereof (whether or not title to materials used in the performance of such business passes to another by accession, confusion or other than by outright sale), persons engaged in the business of rendering any type of service which does not constitute a "sale at retail" or a "sale at wholesale." The value of advertising, demonstration, and promotional supplies and materials furnished to an agent by his principal or supplier to be used for informational, educational and promotional purposes shall not be considered a part of the agent's remuneration or commission and shall not be subject to taxation under this section.

Sec. 5   RCW 82.08.054 and 2003 c 168 s 210 are each amended to read as follows:
     Sellers, or buyers remitting tax directly to the department, shall compute the tax due under this chapter and chapters 82.12 and 82.14 RCW by carrying the computation to the third decimal place and rounding to a whole cent using a method that rounds up to the next cent whenever the third decimal place is greater than four. Sellers may elect to compute the tax due on a transaction on an item or an invoice basis. This rounding rule shall be applied to the aggregated state and local taxes.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   A new section is added to chapter 82.08 RCW to read as follows:
     Persons providing staffing services as defined in section 1 of this act are not liable to collect and remit the retail sales tax to the department when performing services that are defined as a retail sale. The consumer of such staffing services shall be required to remit the sales tax on the sale of or charges for the staffing services directly to the department.

Sec. 7   RCW 82.08.050 and 2003 c 168 s 203, 2003 c 76 s 3, and 2003 c 53 s 400 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
     (1) Except as provided in section 6 of this act, the tax hereby imposed shall be paid by the buyer to the seller, and each seller shall collect from the buyer the full amount of the tax payable in respect to each taxable sale in accordance with the schedule of collections adopted by the department pursuant to the provisions of RCW 82.08.060.
     (2) The tax required by this chapter, to be collected by the seller, shall be deemed to be held in trust by the seller until paid to the department, and any seller who appropriates or converts the tax collected to his or her own use or to any use other than the payment of the tax to the extent that the money required to be collected is not available for payment on the due date as prescribed in this chapter is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.
     (3) In case any seller fails to collect the tax herein imposed or, having collected the tax, fails to pay it to the department in the manner prescribed by this chapter, whether such failure is the result of his or her own acts or the result of acts or conditions beyond his or her control, he or she shall, nevertheless, be personally liable to the state for the amount of the tax, unless the seller has taken from the buyer a resale certificate under RCW 82.04.470, a copy of a direct pay permit issued under RCW 82.32.087, information required under the streamlined sales and use tax agreement, or information required under rules adopted by the department. Sellers shall not be relieved from personal liability for the amount of the tax unless they maintain proper records of exempt transactions and provide them to the department when requested.
     (4) The amount of tax, until paid by the buyer to the seller or to the department, shall constitute a debt from the buyer to the seller and any seller who fails or refuses to collect the tax as required with intent to violate the provisions of this chapter or to gain some advantage or benefit, either direct or indirect, and any buyer who refuses to pay any tax due under this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor.
     (5) The tax required by this chapter to be collected by the seller shall be stated separately from the selling price in any sales invoice or other instrument of sale. On all retail sales through vending machines, the tax need not be stated separately from the selling price or collected separately from the buyer. For purposes of determining the tax due from the buyer to the seller, or the department, and from the seller to the department it shall be conclusively presumed that the selling price quoted in any price list, sales document, contract or other agreement between the parties does not include the tax imposed by this chapter, but if the seller advertises the price as including the tax or that the seller is paying the tax, the advertised price shall not be considered the selling price, except in cases where the buyer is required to pay the tax directly to the department.
     (6) Where a buyer has failed to pay to the seller the tax imposed by this chapter and the seller has not paid the amount of the tax to the department, the department may, in its discretion, proceed directly against the buyer for collection of the tax, in which case a penalty of ten percent may be added to the amount of the tax for failure of the buyer to pay the same to the seller, regardless of when the tax may be collected by the department; and all of the provisions of chapter 82.32 RCW, including those relative to interest and penalties, shall apply in addition; and, for the sole purpose of applying the various provisions of chapter 82.32 RCW, the twenty-fifth day of the month following the tax period in which the purchase was made shall be considered as the due date of the tax.
     (7) Notwithstanding subsections (1) through (6) of this section, any person making sales is not obligated to collect the tax imposed by this chapter if:
     (a) The person's activities in this state, whether conducted directly or through another person, are limited to:
     (i) The storage, dissemination, or display of advertising;
     (ii) The taking of orders; or
     (iii) The processing of payments; and
     (b) The activities are conducted electronically via a web site on a server or other computer equipment located in Washington that is not owned or operated by the person making sales into this state nor owned or operated by an affiliated person. "Affiliated persons" has the same meaning as provided in RCW 82.04.424.
     (8) Subsection (7) of this section expires when: (a) The United States congress grants individual states the authority to impose sales and use tax collection duties on remote sellers; or (b) it is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, in a judgment not subject to review, that a state can impose sales and use tax collection duties on remote sellers.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   This act applies to staffing services, as defined in section 1 of this act, rendered on or after April 1, 2005.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 9   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 immediately.