WA legislator moves to undo some B&O and sales tax increases
(The Center Square) – State Rep. Jeremie Dufault, R-Selah, has introduced two bills for the upcoming 2026 legislative session to roll back some of the recent tax increases passed by majority Democrats during this year’s session of the Washington State Legislature.
One bill would exempt live presentations from retail sales and use tax. The other bill would repeal the new sales tax on gold and silver bullion; Dufault says Washington has never taxed it before, and most neighboring states still don’t.
Dufault spoke to The Center Square about her bills this week.
“In the rush to enact these tax increases at the beginning of this year, there were all sorts of good people who shouldn’t have gotten caught up in these increases,” he said. “Food banks, nonprofits, school districts, CPR instructors, local piano instructors.”
Bill 2101 It would roll back the business and occupation tax increase that now affects small group instructors (including piano teachers and CPR instructors) simply because they teach more than one person at a time.
“If you’re presenting to one person, you’re not subject to the B&O tax. But if you’re presenting to a small group, you’re subject to the B&O tax,” Dufault said. “For example, there is a piano instructor in my community who teaches group lessons. If he were teaching only one student at a time, he would not be subject to the B&O tax, but now he is subject to the B&O tax because he is teaching four or five students at a time.”
He noted that a CPR instructor in his district was also affected by the tax change.
“If he was teaching one-on-one, he wouldn’t have to pay B&O tax, but because he’s teaching a small group of people, he’s now subject to it,” Dufault said. “So the tax is an issue as well as the administrative burden that we put on these people who do very good things for our communities,” Dufault said.
Draft Law 2093 Tax exemptions on sales of precious metals and bullion will be reintroduced.
“It’s a commonsense measure. Idaho doesn’t tax it, Oregon doesn’t tax it, and what’s going to happen is retail sales of gold and bullion in Washington are going to drop drastically and all the coin shops are going to close because people can buy gold and silver from neighboring states and we’re going to lose that business here in Washington,” Dufault said. “We don’t pay sales tax on investments, and that’s what gold and silver purchases are.”
Dufault hopes both bills will get some attention during next year’s 60-day session, although Democrats, the majority party, will control whether any legislation is considered.
“There’s not a lot of time in the short session and the clock is ticking and it looks like there’s going to be a lot of talk about income taxes,” he said. “And so that’s where a lot of the attention is going to be and we’re going to see how far we can go in terms of getting back to common sense in our tax code.”
He was talking about Democrats imposing a wealth tax on those with annual income over $1 million. This will reportedly affect approximately 20,000 households in Washington and generate at least $3 billion in annual income.
Dufault told The Center Square it was foolish for anyone to think the so-called “millionaire tax” would stay at that threshold.
“When the modern version of the federal income tax was enacted in 1913, it applied only to the wealthiest 1%. Now two-thirds of Americans pay federal income tax,” he added. “If an income tax passes in Washington state, it will be a tax on you and your paycheck.”
By December 23 newsletter From Gov. Bob Ferguson, he supports “codifying the $1 million threshold into state law, with appropriate inflation adjustments.”
The 2026 legislative session will begin on January 12 and last until March 12.
