BILL REQ. #:  H-3854.3 

Read first time 02/04/14.   Referred to Committee on Finance.

     AN ACT Relating to providing business and occupation tax relief for monthly publication newspapers; adding a new section to chapter 82.04 RCW; creating a new section; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature categorizes this tax preference as one intended to provide tax relief for certain businesses or individuals, as indicated in RCW 82.32.808(2)(e).
     (2) It is the legislature's specific public policy objective to provide tax relief to the monthly newspaper publishing industry. It is the legislature's intent to allow certain smaller publishers serving localized populations in Washington state to benefit from the preferential business and occupation rate that the legislature established for larger newspaper industry businesses.
     (3) If a review finds that the actual fiscal cost of this tax preference has not exceeded the estimated cost provided in the final fiscal note for the legislation by more than ten percent in any fiscal year for fiscal years 2015 through 2019, then the legislature intends to extend the expiration date of the tax preference.
     (4) In order to obtain the data necessary to perform the review in subsection (3) of this section, the joint legislative audit and review committee will use data provided by the department of revenue regarding taxpayer savings from claiming the preferential business and occupation tax rate under section 2 of this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 82.04 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) Upon every person engaging within this state in the business of printing a monthly newspaper, publishing a monthly newspaper, or both, the amount of tax on such business is equal to the gross income of the business multiplied by the rate of 0.35 percent through June 30, 2015, and 0.2904 percent thereafter.
     (2) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (a) "Monthly newspaper" means a publication issued regularly at stated intervals of not more than once a month and printed on newsprint in tabloid or broadsheet format folded loosely together without stapling, glue, or any other binding of any kind, including any supplement of a printed newspaper, with fewer than twenty-five thousand copies printed each month.
     (b) "Supplement" means a printed publication, including a magazine or advertising section, that is:
     (i) Labeled and identified as part of the printed newspaper; and
     (ii) Circulated or distributed:
     (A) As an insert or attachment to the printed newspaper; or
     (B) Separate and apart from the printed newspaper so long as the distribution is within the general circulation area of the newspaper.
     (3) This section expires July 1, 2020.