NSNexus by State

Sales Tax on Services in Washington (2026) — What's Taxable

Updated

Reviewed by Nexus by State research team using official state tax sources. Last reviewed .

Guide content last reviewed: 2026-07-30

Whether Washington taxes a service depends on how the state draws its tax base, not on how professional the work looks — Enumerated list, expanded in 2025. Below: the direct answer, which services are taxable, how professional services are treated, and the official WA source behind each rule (retrieved 2026-07-30).

Does Washington charge sales tax on services?

Enumerated list, expanded in 2025

For a defined list of services, yes — and that list grew sharply on October 1, 2025. ESSB 5814 made advertising, information technology services, custom website development, custom software and prewritten-software customization, live presentations, investigation/security/armored car services, and temporary staffing into retail sales, on top of the construction, installation, repair, landscaping, and recreation services Washington already taxed. Retail sales tax is 6.50% state plus the local rate. Services that are not retail sales are generally still taxed in Washington — but under the B&O tax on gross receipts, not the retail sales tax.

Services subject to retail sales tax

  • Constructing and improving new or existing buildings and structures, including cleaning, fumigating, razing, snow removal, land clearing, and earth moving
  • Installing, cleaning, repairing, and altering tangible personal property
  • Landscaping and landscape maintenance
  • Retail recreation services — fishing charters, sight-seeing trips, sporting events, athletic and fitness training
  • Tanning, tattooing, and steam baths
  • Car washing and detailing, vehicle towing, and automobile parking
  • Catering, personal chef, and restaurant services
  • Telephone services, alarm monitoring, domain name registration, escrow services, and credit bureau services
  • Advertising services — added October 1, 2025 by ESSB 5814, covering digital and nondigital services related to creating, preparing, producing, or disseminating advertisements, including layout, art direction, graphic design, mechanical preparation, production supervision, placement, online referrals, search engine marketing, and lead generation optimization
  • Information technology services and custom website development — added October 1, 2025
  • Sale and licensing of custom software, and customization of prewritten software — added October 1, 2025
  • Live presentations; investigation, security, and armored car services; and temporary staffing services — added October 1, 2025
  • Digital automated services, after ESSB 5814 repealed several DAS exclusions including advertising, live presentations, data processing, and services provided primarily through human effort

Still outside retail sales tax

  • Traditional professional services — accounting, legal, engineering, and architecture — which the Department says remain subject to B&O tax under the Service and Other Activities classification rather than becoming retail sales
  • Graphic design sold on its own, without the accompanying services that make up an advertising service
  • Farm labor contractor services, which the Department generally does not treat as temporary staffing services
  • Youth camps, which the Department says are not taxable as live presentations

Are professional services taxable in Washington?

Not for retail sales tax, but they are still taxed. The Department says traditional professional services — accounting, legal, engineering, and architecture — remain under the Service and Other Activities B&O classification rather than becoming retail sales under ESSB 5814. The firm owes B&O tax on gross receipts; it just does not collect sales tax from the client.

How Washington handles services in practice

Washington is the state where a 2025 answer is now wrong. ESSB 5814 took effect October 1, 2025 and moved whole industries — agencies, IT consultancies, staffing firms, security companies — from “B&O only” into “collect retail sales tax from the customer.” If your Washington answer predates that date, re-derive it.

Two taxes, not one. Retail sales tax is collected from the customer on retail sales. The business and occupation tax is owed by the business on its gross receipts regardless. A service that is not a retail sale is generally not sales-tax-free in Washington — it sits under the Service and Other Activities B&O classification instead. Sellers who read “not a retail sale” as “no Washington tax” get this wrong in both directions.

The boundaries are still being drawn. The Department has issued interim guidance statements on advertising, IT services, custom website development, temporary staffing, and the DAS exclusions, with formal rule-making to follow — and it opened a temporary penalty relief program for sales or use tax that went uncollected because of these changes. Check the current interim guidance for your category before relying on a classification you made at launch.

Where these Washington rules come from

Every statement on this page traces to one of the official sources below. date_retrieved: 2026-07-30.

Washington nexus note

Washington sales tax nexus and economic nexus threshold: $100,000 in gross receipts sourced or attributed to Washington in the current or prior year (eff. 2020-01-01). The transaction-count threshold was eliminated when this unified threshold took effect. Crossing the threshold registers a remote seller for both retail sales tax AND Business & Occupation (B&O) tax — Washington classifies remote-seller revenue under the Retailing B&O classification, and a "No Local Activity" deduction is available when the seller has no in-state physical B&O nexus. Marketplace facilitator law (RCW 82.08.0531; marketplace facilitator defined at RCW 82.08.010(15)) applies the same $100,000 Washington-receipts threshold to marketplaces — Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Walmart collect and remit Washington sales tax on third-party transactions they facilitate, and have provided monthly Washington-sales reports to their sellers since 2019-07-01. Direct-to-consumer Washington sales you make outside any marketplace continue to count toward your own $100,000 economic-nexus calculation.

What to do next

Read the full Washington overview for thresholds, filing frequency, marketplace facilitator rules, and registration links. Use the nexus calculator to check whether you have crossed the threshold. For background on the post-Wayfair economic nexus framework, see the pillar guide.

Worked examples: service businesses in Washington

The general rule above is easier to apply against a real trade. These national industry guides walk the same question for three service verticals, and each one names the state-by-state differences that decide whether a given invoice is taxable:

Services sales tax in other states

Compare Washington's services rules with nearby and similar states' services sales tax guides:

Frequently asked questions

Does Washington charge sales tax on services in 2026?
For a defined list of services, yes — and that list grew sharply on October 1, 2025. ESSB 5814 made advertising, information technology services, custom website development, custom software and prewritten-software customization, live presentations, investigation/security/armored car services, and temporary staffing into retail sales, on top of the construction, installation, repair, landscaping, and recreation services Washington already taxed. Retail sales tax is 6.50% state plus the local rate. Services that are not retail sales are generally still taxed in Washington — but under the B&O tax on gross receipts, not the retail sales tax.
Which services are taxable in Washington?
Services subject to retail sales tax in Washington: Constructing and improving new or existing buildings and structures, including cleaning, fumigating, razing, snow removal, land clearing, and earth moving; Installing, cleaning, repairing, and altering tangible personal property; Landscaping and landscape maintenance; Retail recreation services — fishing charters, sight-seeing trips, sporting events, athletic and fitness training. The full list on this page is drawn from Washington Department of Revenue — Retail sales tax, retrieved 2026-07-30.
Are professional services taxable in Washington?
Not for retail sales tax, but they are still taxed. The Department says traditional professional services — accounting, legal, engineering, and architecture — remain under the Service and Other Activities B&O classification rather than becoming retail sales under ESSB 5814. The firm owes B&O tax on gross receipts; it just does not collect sales tax from the client.
Do I need to register in Washington if I only sell services?
Registration follows from nexus, not from what you sell. Washington's economic nexus test is $100,000. Whether your service receipts count toward that threshold, and whether Washington still expects a registration when your particular service is not taxable, are separate questions that the state answers per service — confirm both with the Washington revenue agency before deciding you have no filing obligation.
How do I check whether my specific service is taxable in Washington?
Start from Washington's posture — enumerated list, expanded in 2025 — then check your own service against the official guidance rather than against a general rule. The primary source for this page is Washington Department of Revenue — Retail sales tax (https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/retail-sales-tax), retrieved 2026-07-30. Taxability of services changes by statute more often than tax rates do, so re-check the source date before relying on it for a filing.

Sources

date_retrieved: 2026-05-26

Page-specific sources — date_retrieved: 2026-07-30