Revised Code of Washington
Chapter 82.32 - General Administrative Provisions.
82.32.730 - Sourcing—Streamlined sales and use tax agreement.

RCW 82.32.730
Sourcing—Streamlined sales and use tax agreement.

(1) Except as provided in subsections (5) through (8) of this section, for purposes of collecting or paying sales or use taxes to the appropriate jurisdictions, all sales at retail shall be sourced in accordance with this subsection and subsections (2) through (4) of this section.
(a) When tangible personal property, an extended warranty, a digital good, digital code, digital automated service, or other service defined as a retail sale under RCW 82.04.050 is received by the purchaser at a business location of the seller, the sale is sourced to that business location.
(b) When the tangible personal property, extended warranty, digital good, digital code, digital automated service, or other service defined as a retail sale under RCW 82.04.050 is not received by the purchaser at a business location of the seller, the sale is sourced to the location where receipt by the purchaser or the purchaser's donee, designated as such by the purchaser, occurs, including the location indicated by instructions for delivery to the purchaser or donee, known to the seller.
(c) When (a) and (b) of this subsection do not apply, the sale is sourced to the location indicated by an address for the purchaser that is available from the business records of the seller that are maintained in the ordinary course of the seller's business when use of this address does not constitute bad faith.
(d) When (a), (b), and (c) of this subsection do not apply, the sale is sourced to the location indicated by an address for the purchaser obtained during the consummation of the sale, including the address of a purchaser's payment instrument, if no other address is available, when use of this address does not constitute bad faith.
(e) When (a), (b), (c), or (d) of this subsection do not apply, including the circumstance where the seller is without sufficient information to apply those provisions, then the location shall be determined by the address from which tangible personal property was shipped, from which the digital good or digital code or the computer software delivered electronically was first available for transmission by the seller, or from which the extended warranty or digital automated service or other service defined as a retail sale under RCW 82.04.050 was provided, disregarding for these purposes any location that merely provided the digital transfer of the product sold.
(2) The lease or rental of tangible personal property, other than property identified in subsection (3) or (4) of this section, shall be sourced as provided in this subsection.
(a) For a lease or rental that requires recurring periodic payments, the first periodic payment is sourced the same as a retail sale in accordance with subsection (1) of this section. Periodic payments made subsequent to the first payment are sourced to the primary property location for each period covered by the payment. The primary property location shall be as indicated by an address for the property provided by the lessee that is available to the lessor from its records maintained in the ordinary course of business, when use of this address does not constitute bad faith. The property location is not altered by intermittent use at different locations, such as use of business property that accompanies employees on business trips and service calls.
(b) For a lease or rental that does not require recurring periodic payments, the payment is sourced the same as a retail sale in accordance with subsection (1) of this section.
(c) This subsection (2) does not affect the imposition or computation of sales or use tax on leases or rentals based on a lump sum or accelerated basis, or on the acquisition of property for lease.
(3) The lease or rental of motor vehicles, trailers, semitrailers, or aircraft that do not qualify as transportation equipment shall be sourced as provided in this subsection.
(a) For a lease or rental that requires recurring periodic payments, each periodic payment is sourced to the primary property location. The primary property location is as indicated by an address for the property provided by the lessee that is available to the lessor from its records maintained in the ordinary course of business, when use of this address does not constitute bad faith. This location is not altered by intermittent use at different locations.
(b) For a lease or rental that does not require recurring periodic payments, the payment is sourced the same as a retail sale in accordance with subsection (1) of this section.
(c) This subsection does not affect the imposition or computation of sales or use tax on leases or rentals based on a lump sum or accelerated basis, or on the acquisition of property for lease.
(4) The retail sale, including lease or rental, of transportation equipment shall be sourced the same as a retail sale in accordance with subsection (1) of this section.
(5) This subsection applies to direct mail transactions not governed by subsection (6) of this section.
(a) This subsection (5)(a) applies to sales of advertising and promotional direct mail.
(i) A purchaser of advertising and promotional direct mail may provide the seller with either:
(A) A direct pay permit;
(B) A streamlined sales and use tax agreement certificate of exemption claiming direct mail (or other written statement approved, authorized, or accepted by the department); or
(C) Information showing the jurisdictions to which the advertising and promotional direct mail is to be delivered to recipients.
(ii) If the purchaser provides the permit, certificate, or statement referred to in (a)(i)(A) or (B) of this subsection (5), the seller, in the absence of bad faith, is relieved of all obligations to collect, pay, or remit any tax on any transaction involving advertising and promotional direct mail to which the permit, certificate, or statement applies. The purchaser must source the sale to the jurisdictions to which the advertising and promotional direct mail is to be delivered to the recipients and must report and pay any applicable tax due.
(iii) If the purchaser provides the seller information showing the jurisdictions to which the advertising and promotional direct mail is to be delivered to recipients, the seller must source the sale to the jurisdictions to which the advertising and promotional direct mail is to be delivered and must collect and remit the applicable tax. In the absence of bad faith, the seller is relieved of any further obligation to collect any additional tax on the sale of advertising and promotional direct mail where the seller has sourced the sale according to the delivery information provided by the purchaser.
(iv) If the purchaser does not provide the seller with any of the items listed in (a)(i)(A), (B), or (C) of this subsection (5), the sale must be sourced according to subsection (1)(e) of this section.
(b) This subsection (5)(b) applies to sales of other direct mail.
(i) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection (5)(b), sales of other direct mail are sourced in accordance with subsection (1)(c) of this section.
(ii) A purchaser of other direct mail may provide the seller with either:
(A) A direct pay permit; or
(B) A streamlined sales and use tax agreement certificate of exemption claiming direct mail (or other written statement approved, authorized, or accepted by the department).
(iii) If the purchaser provides the permit, certificate, or statement referred to in (b)(ii)(A) or (B) of this subsection (5), the seller, in the absence of bad faith, is relieved of all obligations to collect, pay, or remit any tax on any transaction involving other direct mail to which the permit, certificate, or statement applies. Notwithstanding (b)(i) of this subsection (5), the sale must be sourced to the jurisdictions to which the other direct mail is to be delivered to the recipients, and the purchaser must report and pay any applicable tax due.
(6)(a) This subsection applies only with respect to transactions in which direct mail is delivered or distributed from a location within this state to a location within this state.
(b) If the purchaser of direct mail provides the seller with a direct pay permit or a streamlined sales and use tax agreement certificate of exemption claiming direct mail (or other written statement approved, authorized, or accepted by the department), the seller, in the absence of bad faith, is relieved of all obligations to collect, pay, or remit the applicable tax on any transaction involving direct mail to which the permit, certificate, or statement applies. The purchaser must report and pay any applicable tax due. A streamlined sales and use tax agreement certificate of exemption claiming direct mail will remain in effect for all future sales of direct mail by the seller to the purchaser until it is revoked in writing.
(c)(i) Except as provided in (b), (c)(ii), and (c)(iii) of this subsection (6), the seller must collect the tax according to subsection (1)(e) of this section.
(ii) To the extent the seller knows that a portion of the sale of direct mail will be delivered or distributed to locations in another state, the seller must collect the tax on that portion according to subsection (5) of this section.
(iii) Notwithstanding (c)(i) and (ii) of this subsection (6), a seller may elect to use the provisions of subsection (5) of this section to source all sales of advertising and promotional direct mail.
(7) The following are sourced to the location at or from which delivery is made to the consumer:
(a) A retail sale of watercraft;
(b) A retail sale of a modular home, manufactured home, or mobile home;
(c) A retail sale, excluding the lease and rental, of a motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, or aircraft, that do not qualify as transportation equipment; and
(d) Florist sales. In the case of a sale in which one florist takes an order from a customer and then communicates that order to another florist who delivers the items purchased to the place designated by the customer, the location at or from which the delivery is made to the consumer is deemed to be the location of the florist originally taking the order.
(8)(a) A retail sale of the providing of telecommunications services, as that term is defined in RCW 82.04.065, is sourced in accordance with RCW 82.32.520.
(b) A retail sale of the providing of ancillary services, as that term is defined in RCW 82.04.065, is sourced to the customer's place of primary use of the telecommunications services in respect to which the ancillary services are associated with or incidental to. The definitions of "customer" and "place of primary use" in RCW 82.32.520 apply to this subsection (8)(b).
(9) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section.
(a) "Advertising and promotional direct mail" means printed material that meets the definition of direct mail, the primary purpose of which is to attract public attention to a product, person, business, or organization, or to attempt to sell, popularize, or secure financial support for a product, person, business, or organization. As used in this subsection (9)(a), the word "product" means tangible personal property, a product transferred electronically, or a service.
(b) "Delivered electronically" means delivered to the purchaser by means other than tangible storage media.
(c) "Direct mail" means printed material delivered or distributed by United States mail or other delivery service to a mass audience or to addressees on a mailing list provided by the purchaser or at the direction of the purchaser when the cost of the items are not billed directly to the recipients. "Direct mail" includes tangible personal property supplied directly or indirectly by the purchaser to the direct mail seller for inclusion in the package containing the printed material. "Direct mail" does not include multiple items of printed material delivered to a single address.
(d)(i) "Other direct mail" means any direct mail that is not advertising and promotional direct mail, regardless of whether advertising and promotional direct mail is included in the same mailing. The term includes, but is not limited to:
(A) Transactional direct mail that contains personal information specific to the addressee including, but not limited to, invoices, bills, statements of account, and payroll advices;
(B) Any legally required mailings including, but not limited to, privacy notices, tax reports, and stockholder reports; and
(C) Other nonpromotional direct mail delivered to existing or former shareholders, customers, employees, or agents including, but not limited to, newsletters and informational pieces.
(ii) Other direct mail does not include the development of billing information or the provision of any data processing service that is more than incidental.
(e) "Florist sales" means the retail sale of tangible personal property by a florist. For purposes of this subsection (9)(e), "florist" means a person whose primary business activity is the retail sale of fresh cut flowers, potted ornamental plants, floral arrangements, floral bouquets, wreaths, or any similar products, used for decorative and not landscaping purposes.
(f) "Receive" and "receipt" mean taking possession of tangible personal property, making first use of digital automated services or other services, or taking possession or making first use of digital goods or digital codes, whichever comes first. "Receive" and "receipt" do not include possession by a shipping company on behalf of the purchaser.
(g) "Transportation equipment" means:
(i) Locomotives and railcars that are used for the carriage of persons or property in interstate commerce;
(ii) Trucks and truck tractors with a gross vehicle weight rating of ten thousand one pounds or greater, trailers, semitrailers, or passenger buses that are:
(A) Registered through the international registration plan; and
(B) Operated under authority of a carrier authorized and certificated by the United States department of transportation or another federal authority to engage in the carriage of persons or property in interstate commerce;
(iii) Aircraft that are operated by air carriers authorized and certificated by the United States department of transportation or another federal or foreign authority to engage in the carriage of persons or property in interstate or foreign commerce; or
(iv) Containers designed for use on and component parts attached or secured on the items described in (g)(i) through (iii) of this subsection.
(10) In those instances where there is no obligation on the part of a seller to collect or remit this state's sales or use tax, the use of tangible personal property, digital good, digital code, or of a digital automated service or other service, subject to use tax, is sourced to the place of first use in this state. The definition of use in RCW 82.12.010 applies to this subsection.

[ 2010 c 106 § 229. Prior: 2009 c 535 § 704; 2009 c 289 § 1; 2008 c 324 § 1; 2007 c 6 § 501.]
NOTES:

Effective date—2010 c 106: See note following RCW 35.102.145.


Intent—Construction—2009 c 535: See notes following RCW 82.04.192.


Effective date—2008 c 324: "This act takes effect July 1, 2008." [ 2008 c 324 § 2.]


Part headings not law—Savings—Effective date—Severability—2007 c 6: See notes following RCW 82.32.020.


Findings—Intent—2007 c 6: See note following RCW 82.14.390.

Structure Revised Code of Washington