The bill reenacts and amends RCW 82.04.299 to create a new workforce education investment surcharge on certain large "select advanced computing" businesses. It imposes a 1.22% surcharge on the gross income of the business that is subject to tax under RCW 82.04.290(2), requires quarterly reporting and payment (returns and amounts due by the last day of the month after the reporting period), and directs that revenues be deposited into the workforce education investment account in RCW 43.79.195. The Department of Revenue may audit or investigate whether a person is subject to the surcharge and may require disclosure of affiliated group membership and identification of members for administration. The bill defines key terms for the surcharge (including "advanced computing," "affiliate," "affiliated group," "cloud computing services," "control," and "select advanced computing business" — an affiliated group with at least one advanced computing member and worldwide gross revenue over $25,000,000,000 in the prior calendar year) and lists certain exemptions such as hospitals (per RCW 70.41.020) and certain provider clinics and affiliates. It establishes a specific penalty procedure: if the Department proves by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence that affiliated group members intentionally failed to comply to evade the surcharge, the Department must assess a penalty equal to 50% of the total surcharge payable by all members for the calendar year of noncompliance, this penalty replacing the evasion penalty under RCW 82.32.090(7). The surcharge is applied to business activity occurring on or after April 1, 2020, and the act takes effect October 1, 2025. Important statutory cross-references and some definitions (for example, the precise scope of "provider clinic" and the text of the cited RCW sections) are not included in the extracted facts, so some applicability details and prior-law comparisons are unclear.

If enacted, very large tech and cloud companies that are part of affiliated groups with at least one member doing advanced computing and more than $25 billion in worldwide revenue would owe a new 1.22% surcharge on the Washington gross income they earn from the specific advanced computing activities already subject to state business tax. Those companies would need to report and pay the surcharge quarterly, disclose affiliated group membership when the Department of Revenue asks, and face a steep penalty — equal to half of the surcharge owed by the group for the year — if the department proves intentional evasion; the surcharge receipts would go into the state workforce education investment fund, increasing funding for those programs. The immediate practical effects are higher costs and added compliance work for the targeted firms, plus a real risk of large retroactive assessments because the surcharge is written to apply to activity as far back as April 1, 2020 even though the act’s effective date is October 1, 2025. Hospitals and certain primary care or clinic affiliates are carved out, so health care providers are likely unaffected, but the exact scope of taxable activities, which entities qualify as “provider clinics,” and how income will be allocated among affiliates depend on other tax rules not included here, so those implementation details remain unclear.