The bill restores former RCW 82.04.062 as it was originally enacted in 1985 (overriding its repeal by section 105, chapter 423, Laws of 2025) and adds a new section to chapter 82.04 RCW. The new section states that the terms "wholesale sale," "sale at wholesale," "retail sale," and "sale at retail" do not include the sale of precious metal bullion or monetized bullion, and it provides definitions for those two terms. The bill creates a new tax rule for businesses that make sales of precious metal bullion or monetized bullion: tax is imposed on amounts received as commissions on transactions for customer accounts, reduced only by amounts paid to other dealers associated with those transactions. It prohibits deductions or offsets for salaries or commissions paid to salesmen or other employees when computing that tax. The bill also specifies that RCW 82.32.805 and 82.32.808 do not apply to this act. The act is retroactive to January 1, 2026, is declared prospective as well, and is an emergency measure taking effect immediately on enactment. Affected parties identified in the text include businesses selling bullion, dealers involved in bullion transactions, salesmen and other employees (with respect to the deduction prohibition), and customers in bullion transactions. The extracted material does not include the full text of the original 1985 RCW 82.04.062 being restored, nor the contents of RCW 82.32.805 and 82.32.808 or other provisions of chapter 82.04 RCW that may affect interpretation, so some practical effects and interactions with existing law are unclear. The bill is Senate Bill 5894 (S-3626.1), prefiled December 16, 2025 and read first time January 12, 2026.

If enacted, this bill would change how transactions in precious metal bullion and monetized bullion are taxed: the sale itself would not be treated as a retail or wholesale sale, and businesses would instead be taxed on the commissions they receive from customer account transactions (after subtracting amounts paid to other dealers). Sellers that currently reduce taxable income by claiming employee salaries or sales commissions would no longer be able to deduct those payments against this bullion-commission tax, which will likely raise tax costs for dealers who rely on sales staff or pay significant internal commissions; some dealers who pay other dealers could limit their taxable commissions by those payments. Customers could see higher prices if dealers pass on these increased tax costs. The change is retroactive to January 1, 2026 and takes effect immediately upon enactment, so affected businesses may need to revise recent tax filings and prepare for immediate reporting changes or potential back taxes. Important details are missing from the extracted text — the full text of the 1985 provision being restored and the contents of RCW 82.32.805 and 82.32.808 are not provided — so there is uncertainty about how this interacts with other tax rules, the exact tax calculation beyond the commission basis, and any procedural or enforcement consequences.