H-0521.2
HOUSE BILL 2031
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State of Washington | 64th Legislature | 2015 Regular Session |
By Representatives Harmsworth, Blake, Scott, Buys, Vick, Zeiger, Griffey, and Young
Read first time 02/09/15. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.
AN ACT Relating to improving public safety by encouraging the voluntary purchase and voluntary use of firearm safety products; amending RCW
82.08.832 and 82.12.832; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that the current incentive to encourage firearm safety practices by providing a sales tax exemption for gun safes was a prudent public safety investment and should be expanded to all products that promote firearm safety by preventing the unauthorized access or accidental discharge of a firearm. Therefore, the legislature intends to provide a sales and use tax exemption for the voluntary purchase of firearm safety products.
(2)(a) This subsection is the tax preference performance statement for the sales and use tax exemption for firearm safety products as provided in section 2 of this act. The performance statement is only intended to be used for subsequent evaluation of the tax preference. It is not intended to create a private right of action by any party or be used to determine eligibility to preferential tax treatment.
(b) The legislature categorizes this tax preference as one intended to induce certain designated behavior by taxpayers as indicated in RCW
82.32.808(2)(a).
(c) It is the legislature's specific public policy objective to authorize a sales and use tax exemption for the voluntary purchase of firearm safety products to encourage the purchase of these products and to provide an incentive to Washington citizens to promote firearm safety by purchasing such products.
(d) In order to obtain the necessary data to perform an evaluation of the effectiveness of the sales and use tax exemption, the department of revenue must provide a unique exemption code for taxpayers that file their tax return electronically to report the total amount of exempt firearm safety product sales. The department of revenue is required to include this tax preference in any future publication of the tax exemption study pursuant to RCW
43.06.400.
(e) The joint legislative audit and review committee must review the tax preference provided in this act as part of its normal review process of tax preferences. The committee must specifically assess the sales of firearm safety products for every year in which the department of revenue can provide data.
Sec. 2. RCW 82.08.832 and 1998 c 178 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) The tax levied by RCW
82.08.020 does not apply to sales of gun safes
or firearm safety products.
(2) As used in this section and RCW
82.12.832((,)):(a) "Firearm safety product" means a device that, when installed on a firearm, is designed to prevent the unauthorized use or accidental discharge of the firearm without first removing or deactivating the device from the firearm.
(b) "Gun safe" means an enclosure specifically designed or modified for the purpose of storing a firearm and equipped with a padlock, key lock, combination lock, or similar locking device which, when locked, prevents the unauthorized use of the firearm.
(3) The department must provide a unique exemption code for taxpayers that file their tax return electronically to report the total amount of exempt firearm safety products sold.
Sec. 3. RCW 82.12.832 and 1998 c 178 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
The provisions of this chapter do not apply with respect to the use of gun safes
or firearm safety products as defined in RCW
82.08.832.
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