A few months back, we let you know about the new surcharge law firms will have to pay on B&O tax starting in January 2020. In effect, the new law increases your law firm’s B&O tax by 20%, from a rate of 1.5% to 1.8%. There’s been a new development, and it’s both good and bad news for law firms.
The good news is that the Washington Department of Revenue (DOR) will NOT be collecting the surcharge for January 2020. They haven’t said if they’ll collect it for February and beyond. The reason they’re not collecting it is because there’s a bill on the table to partially repeal that tax. If you’re interested, you can download the text of that bill here. (It’s SB 4874.2.)
The bad news for us attorneys is, the partial repeal of the surcharge is only for doctors and veterinarians, so when the DOR does start enforcing it, we’ll still have to pay the surcharge even if the partial repeal passes.
But, at least we get a break for a bit.
Skepsis’ full-service bookkeeping for law firms includes filing and compliance with all Washington State tax reporting requirements. Click here to book an exploratory call today to see how Skepsis can keep you compliant, increase your bottom line, and give you more time for what’s important.