Updates Regarding Sales Tax in Washington

Selling on Amazon Amazon Announcements
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Haven’t seen any official site-wide announcement as of yet - so far today, the only 092225 News Headline is “Watch Amazon Accelerate 2025 sessions on demand” (link), which touts the Sell on Amazon YouTube Account (link) & announces that the next Accelerate Conference will return in Seattle on September 22-24, 2026 - but one of our accounts rcv’d this email from the AAT (‘Amazonese’ for “Amazon Advertising Team”) about an hour ago:

Leaving aside the uncertainty implied by the Olympia worthies not yet having supplied Amazon itself with specific guidance, I suspect that this provision of the linked FAQ from the WA DOR might not bode well for the tax being limited to WA-domiciled businesses:

Given how DAS (“Digital Automated Services”, aka “DST” for “Digital Services Tax”) tax implementations have rolled out in other nations & domestic locales alike, and WA DOR’s somewhat-hazy definition of what qualifies as such (link, DOR.WA.gov), and Amazon’s cozy relationship with WA legislators, I’ll not be surprised to learn that ALL 3P Sellers using Amazon Ads (& those who aren’t 3P Sellers, which is a fast-growing segment) wind up being asked to pay this tax…

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Wouldn’t all of us be exempt through MPU? What I mean is advertising isn’t limited to Washington State. At the very least it would be across the USA which would certainly cross multiple jurisdictions as each state (and possibly some metro areas) would be their own jurisdiction.

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Not presently being a Member At The Bar, I can only offer my lay perspective - which, @ least from a first-blush take, is the same as yours - however, I’m also aware of how some sellers/advertisers have been asked to pay for DSTs incurred when Amazon served up ads outside of the origin Marketplace w/o their express consent.

I’m engaging in some further research before I cut a memo to Legal & ask them to confirm or deny what I come up with.

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We got the email earlier today also …

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The way I read this is that MPU qualifies you to get an exemption certificate; not that you are automatically exempt with first getting the certificate.
But we all know that if there’s anything less clear than Amazon policy, it’s tax laws…

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10%….

Wow

Can’t wait for other states to follow…..

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California will be higher …

It will catch on fire just like the marketplace tax did.

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Always nice to see the Sellers Ask Sellers forum getting a plug - especially one from industry observers as widely-followed as are the Steiners.

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We at SAS :heart: them, especially after all they went through to bring truth to the ecommerce industry.

There’s a good GeekWire article they linked to in their blog post. I’m not it linking directly here, but encourage everyone to check it out.

Taxes are based not on where the work is performed, but where the customer receives the service.

ETA: tagging in @Uncle_Leroy for any possible insight

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This is still clear as mud. I suspect that the revenue department is still conversing with the legal department to see what they can actually get away with. Scummy just as much as big corporations.

I’m not a prophet by any means. I think when this is all said and done, we will have traversed through a years-long (perhaps even a decade or so) of legal patchwork, every state considering this “free money”. It would be great if this didn’t go anywhere besides the turds in Washington State. However, I suspect that every state will eventually have this. I do not foresee any type of “threshold” like there is for the Marketplace Facilitator Tax. Every state is looking for new streams of revenue so it might be around permanently.

This must have been the brainstorm of a child sitting on the toilet while taking an extremely long and scented dump.

It does appear according to the Washington State Legislature that the tax will only apply to businesses located in Washington. However, since Amazon is in Washington, it might affect the rest of us. Reading this, it might seem that Amazon is merely facilitating the advertising so it could be that those of us who advertise will be socked with the final bill in the end.

Another reading project being bumped up. Just what I needed. I’ll report back when/if I have anything more that makes sense

a man in a plaid shirt is laying on a couch making a funny face .

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That bill is a lot.
Basically Washington State is now applying sales tax to all kinds of services (labor).

If you pay someone to install a ceiling fan in your home, not only is the fan (parts) subject to sales tax but so is the labor.

There is even a sales tax applied to the service of selling sports tickets.

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I maybe get the point of some of it, but I think it’s the same problems we’ve seen elsewhere: not fully accounting for the scope of changes, unintended consequences, and whether there should be exceptions and/or systematic transition before implementation. :woman_facepalming:

Maybe Amazon should be charged a state tax for selling ads (I haven’t thought about it, no personal opinion here)–but I definitely know that Amazon will find every way to pass that on to 100% of their ad-buying clients, in the absence of any clarity of whether Amazon “should” actually pay that to the state of where the client is located or whether all ad clients should even be charged in the first place (e.g., maybe only non-domestic Sellers?), and without any portion of the implementation being staggered or transitioned in over time so that those clients could accommodate for cost increases in their budgets, etc.

Honestly if they are trying to make Amazon pay their fair share, just charge Amazon some kind of yearly fee directly. Don’t make small businesses from every other state do more work to cover Amazon’s sins, actual or perceived.

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No one can ever accuse me of being pro-tax.

If I was a state politician, with all that entails in terms of attitude, this would strike me as an ideal tax. Hard to pass through the effects of to my constituents, likely to draw funds from outside my jurisdiction.

It will be emulated elsewhere, It will be litigated. Odds are the courts in the state will uphold it.

As someone who dislikes some states already, and that includes Washington, my attitude will not change.

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