Washington State House of Representatives are sending a bill to the state senate that will give the newspapers in the state a lower tax rate on their ad revenue.
Washington newspapers are looking for a $1 million tax break this year – a tax break that’d be worth nearly $3 million to the industry in the next full, two-year budget. The bill to cut taxes on money made from online ad sales passed the House 85-5 and awaits a vote in the Senate.
House Bill 2585, sponsored by Rep. (and treasurer candidate) Jim McIntire, D-Seattle, would change the definition of a newspaper to include online publication. That would mean newspapers would pay the Business and Occupation tax rate of 0.484 percent for printing and publishing rather than the 1.5 percent rate charged on income made from other services. The existing tax scheme – with the existing tax break on ad sales – became law before newspapers were published online as well as on paper.
For the coming year, the tax cut would mean a loss of $946,000 in state revenue, according to legislative committee estimates, and $2.7 million for the next two-year budget. The bill was amended by the Senate Ways and Means Committee to sunset after three years.
How convenient.
Its an election year, and the current group of legislators, or 85 of them so far at least, have voted to save the community dead-tree blathering society over $3.5 million over three years.
Endorsements are on the way, I’m sure.
It’s Washington, don’t they know it’s ecologically unsound? 😉