This bill amends RCW 82.08.020 to set a state retail sales tax rate of six percent on the selling price of retail sales in Washington of tangible personal property (except items excluded by RCW 82.04.050), digital goods, digital codes, digital automated services and other services when those items are included in the RCW 82.04.050 definition of retail sale, extended warranties sold to consumers, and other sales included in that definition. It continues existing additional taxes on vehicle transactions: a 5.9 percent tax on retail car rentals (with revenue deposited in the multimodal transportation account) and a 0.3 percent additional tax on retail sales of motor vehicles (other than car rentals) that has been levied since July 1, 2003. The motor vehicle tax explicitly excludes certain vehicle types (specified farm vehicles unless used in cannabis production, off‑road vehicles, nonhighway vehicles, and snowmobiles) and the section states that taxes apply to successive retail sales of the same property. The bill also dedicates 0.16 percent of taxes collected under the main retail sales subsection to fund comprehensive performance audits required under RCW 43.09.470, with those revenues deposited in the performance audits of government account, and specifies that the rates apply to taxes imposed under chapter 82.12 RCW as provided in RCW 82.12.020. The act takes effect October 1, 2025. This is a modification of existing tax law (an amendment to RCW 82.08.020) that changes tax rate applications and revenue allocations; it does not create a new criminal offense or change penalties. The text relies on definitions and provisions in other statutes (for example, the definition of "retail sale" in RCW 82.04.050 and the meaning of "motor vehicle" in RCW 46.04.320) that are not provided here, so full legal scope of taxable items and vehicle definitions cannot be determined from this excerpt alone.

If enacted, the law largely preserves the existing state sales tax structure while formally directing where certain small pieces of that revenue go: the standard 6 percent state sales tax will continue to apply broadly to consumer purchases (including tangible goods and, where other law includes them, some digital items and services), an ongoing extra charge on car rentals will keep funding the multimodal transportation account, and a small ongoing extra tax on motor vehicle sales will also flow to that transportation account. The act also locks in that a very small fraction (0.16 percentage points of the sales tax base) is earmarked for state performance audits, and it takes effect October 1, 2025. The people and entities most affected are retailers and service providers who must collect and remit these taxes, consumers who will pay them at purchase (with higher effective rates on car rentals and vehicle purchases), the multimodal transportation program that will continue to receive dedicated funding, and the state performance audits program which will gain a steady, small funding stream. The bill’s practical reach to digital goods and the precise set of vehicles covered depend on definitions in other statutes not included here, so the exact taxable items and exemptions remain somewhat unclear.