Ag legislator sends out alert about proposed B&O tax

[The Straight Story]

Ag legislator sends out alert about proposed B&O tax

Cookson Beecher
Capital Press

A bill that would require Washington state farmers to pay the business-and-occupation tax if their gross income is more than $200,000 was sent to the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Friday, Feb. 6.

Senate Bill 5911 would also subject farm auctions to the state sales tax and do away with the public utility tax deduction for irrigation.

...
"This is such a step backwards from what we've been trying to do," Schoessler said in an interview Friday, Feb. 6, with the Capital Press. "We knew people would be looking for money under every rock but we didn't expect this shot across the bow so soon."

Schoessler refers to the tax as the "most mean regressive tax" that can be put on agriculture.

Pointing to the $200,000 threshold, Schoesler said that it wouldn't even take a circle of potatoes in the Columbia Basin to hit that threshold.

...

Schoesler said is that a farmer grossing more than $200,000 could, because of expenses, earn barely enough to avoid qualifying for food stamps, free school lunches, or subsidized children's health care. Yet that same farmer would have to pay the business-and-occupation tax if the bill becomes law.

http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=619&ArticleID=48607&TM=29324.81

[Idealism]

1. B&O Railroad? Will it cost me less than $200 now?

This could change my game strategy forever!