14 Reference ↑

14.2 Taxes

State Taxes

The state of Washington does not provide a blanket sales tax exemption for nonprofit organizations.

However WAC 458-20-169 does identify certain sources of nonprofit income as being exempt from tax in Section 5. In section 5.g Fund-Raising is identified as being exempt from B&O tax and retail sales tax under certain conditions. Sales would not qualify under this exemption if it was carried out at a regular place of business and at regularly scheduled hours. They would also not be exempt if sales were being done by paid staff members.

However in cases such as ours, when sales occur irregularly, and are conducted by volunteers, and occur outside of an established place of business for our organization, such sales seem to qualify under the fund-raising exemption.

Based on this guidance, we report No Business Activity when required to submit our WA State Combined Excise Tax Return