BILL REQ. #: S-0407.5
| State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
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.