This bill (House Bill H-2819.1 / House Bill 2424) amends RCW 82.04.050 and creates a new statutory section. The bill title indicates it is intended to exempt temporary staffing services from retail sales tax. The bill was read for the first time on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Committee on Finance. The amendment substantially revises the statutory definition of "sale at retail" / "retail sale," adding and clarifying many categories of services that are included or excluded from retail sales tax. Notable definitional additions include a detailed definition of "advertising services" (with specified inclusions and exclusions such as web hosting and domain registration and certain out‑of‑home advertising) and a definition of "website development services." The text in the provided excerpt shows language defining "temporary staffing services" in strikeout or double parentheses, indicating removal or amendment of that definition in this version of the section. The enactment also addresses numerous other taxable and nontaxable services and charges: athletic and fitness facility services and exclusions, separate treatment for physical and occupational therapy when provided under referral, treatment of software and software access charges, digital goods and digital automated services, extended warranties, data processing services, a long list of recreational and entertainment activities treated as retail sales, exclusions for certain public and federal construction or cleanup work, exclusions for specified transit maintenance agreements, and treatment of purchases by certain grant recipients. The bill creates a new section and specifies that RCW 82.32.805 and RCW 82.32.808 do not apply to this act. The available excerpts do not show the full text of the new section or the completed subsection provisions (several subsections end mid‑sentence), so the final disposition of the temporary staffing services exemption and other cross‑referenced changes cannot be fully determined from these excerpts alone.

If enacted as indicated by the bill title and the struck language in the excerpt, businesses that buy temporary staffing services would likely no longer pay retail sales tax on those services, and temporary staffing firms would no longer need to collect and remit that tax on such sales. That would reduce costs for employers who use contract workers and reduce tax remittance work for staffing agencies, while likely reducing state sales tax revenue; the Department of Revenue and regional transit and grant-related reporting referenced in the section would see related adjustments in tax treatment and reporting. Key affected parties are employers who purchase temporary labor, staffing agencies, and the Department of Revenue; hospitals are specifically mentioned in the original temporary-staffing definition (creating uncertainty whether they remain treated differently). The excerpt leaves important implementation details unclear—such as the exact final wording, any new section text, and whether the hospital exception or other cross-references survive—so the precise scope and revenue impact cannot be fully determined from these chunks alone.