Legislative Information - Quarter 1, 2023

First quarter 2023 update

WFTC program goes live Feb. 1

DOR will launch the Working Families Tax Credit program in less than a month, and we hope you will help us spread the word! Beginning Feb. 1, Washingtonians who are eligible will be able to apply for up to a $1,200 refund. Be sure to visit our Working Families Tax Credit website and share it with your constituents. The site has useful information both for families and tax preparers and includes an eligibility tool for people to check if they may qualify for the credit.

In 2022, DOR hired a team of 47 individuals to build the WFTC program from the ground up. It is unlike any program DOR has ever administered and will be the first such program in a non-income tax state. 

Not having a state income tax means DOR does not have an existing relationship with individual taxpayers, so we are doing everything we can to ensure that qualified Washingtonians know to apply. Our WFTC marketing team has attended 164 events, presentations, and meetings to raise awareness of the program, and we have advertised on various media in all the state’s media markets. 

Using $10 million that the Legislature appropriated to the Department of Commerce for outreach, we have awarded grants to organizations across the state to shine a spotlight on the WFTC and assist taxpayers with applying.

A few of you have contacted us with events for our marketing team to attend in your district. Thank you! The offer remains: if you have a public event coming up in your district (including after Feb. 1) that you think would be good for our marketing team to attend, let us know.

New unclaimed property Money Match program

DOR is launching a new program in 2023 called Money Match to help accelerate the return of Washingtonians’ unclaimed property.

The program will allow us to automatically return some people’s unclaimed property without their having to search our website and file a claim. Using automated tools, we will verify ownership of the property by comparing the state’s UCP database with verified address information. Once the address is verified, we will mail a check for the unclaimed property to the owner’s verified address.

Other states have already implemented their own Money Match programs and we have applied their lessons learned to improve our own rollout.

The department will launch the program next month by initially mailing 2,000 letters notifying owners that we will send them a check in four to five weeks. After the initial returns, the department plans to continue the program on a quarterly basis and increase the number of checks to 10,000 each quarter.

Money Match is the next step in DOR’s efforts to return property conveniently and safely to its rightful owners.

Over the last several years, the department has made several changes to help distribute more unclaimed property, including boosting our advertising and outreach efforts and overhauling our UCP website, making it easier to search for and file a claim. We saw an encouraging uptick in UCP claims filed, thanks to these efforts. 

Washingtonians should continue checking our website for unclaimed property, as only verifiable refunds will be sent automatically. We encourage you to tell your constituents about Money Match, remind them to search our site, and of course, don’t forget to search for your own unclaimed property! At a time when grocery and gas bills are up and everyone can use a little extra cash, DOR is excited to offer this new service to Washington residents. 

DOR business license handling fee reduced

Businesses will be able to save a little money when filing for a business license: DOR is reducing its filing fee from $90 to $50 as a result of recent legislation. 

DOR’s Business Licensing Service (BLS) is responsible for centralizing and administering business licenses required by state agencies and cities. (To date, DOR has worked with 215 cities to incorporate their general business licenses into the system.) Due to reduced internal operating costs at the department, as well as recent legislation requiring the BLS account balance to be kept below $1 million, DOR is able to nearly halve the filing fee that the department collects to help sustain the licensing system.

Ninety candles for the B&O

We will leave it to you to debate whether to wish the B&O a happy birthday, but regardless, the state’s business and occupation tax turns 90 in 2023. In the early 1930s, the state started moving away from property tax as its primary source of revenue. In 1933, an occupation tax was imposed on gross income: 0.3% on extracting, 0.25% on manufacturing, 0.2% on wholesaling, 0.5% on retailing, and 0.5% on most services. 

Jumping to the more recent past, on Dec. 13, the Tax Structure Work Group voted to recommend a margin tax proposal for the Legislature’s consideration during 2023 session. If enacted by the Legislature, the margin tax would replace the B&O as the primary excise tax levied on Washington businesses.