2025-2026 Legislative Agenda

For the 2026 Washington State Legislative Session, Tech4Taxes will be focusing our advocacy efforts on the following legislation.

I. 2026 Legislative Session Priorities

Well Washington Fund (Payroll Excise) (SB5796/HB2100)

PRO

Type: Active Bill (Reintroduction in 2026)

This excise tax would be paid by employers on payroll expenses that exceed a limit of $125,000 per year. Essentially, for every employee that makes over $125,00 a year, a corporation would pay a small percentage of that wage in taxes. This would not impact the taxes paid by employees. This measure directly targets large companies, and shifts the tax burden for essential services onto the most profitable corporations, rather than low and middle-income workers. It is essentially a statewide implementation of the Seattle Jumpstart Tax.

Wealth Tax (SB5797)

PRO

Type: Active Bill (Reintroduction in 2026)

SB 5797 would enact a 1% tax on financial intangibles, such as stocks, bonds, and assets above a $250m threshold. This tax would only affect the wealthiest in our state, and would bring in billions of dollars of revenue to our state's general fund. This tax would be an efficient way to secure more funding for our state's critical social programs, and would go a long way towards addressing the enormous wealth gap, between our wealthiest and poorest residents.

Affordable College for All (ACS Scrap the Cap)(HB2098)

PRO

Type: Active Bill

This bill would generate nearly $2 billion in funding over 4 years for the Washington College Grant. This would enable the state to provide tuition-free higher education for all families earning up to the state-defined Median Family Income. The funding mechanism for this bill is the elimination of the Advanced Computing Surcharge cap - a change which would increase state taxes for some of the largest tech companies in our state.

Vibrant Cities Act

PRO

Active Bill

The Vibrant Cities Act is a revenue-neutral option for Washington cities to rebalance property taxes so they encourage homebuilding and discourage land speculation and vacant lots in the heart of our communities. Cities can opt in, applying an exemption on all buildings, shifting taxes toward land, and away from local investments and housing. When we tax buildings less and land more, we stop rewarding empty urban lots and instead spark economic vitality in our downtowns and more convenient, affordable home choices within our cities.

Wildfire Mitigation Fund (HB2089)

PRO

Type: Active Bill

This bill generates funding to support wildfire mitigation by eliminating a B&O tax preference that has been taken advantage of by internet banks. Initially this was a tax preference intended to benefit "Community Banks," defined in RCW 82.04.29005, as "persons or an affiliate of such persons located in ten or fewer states." However, in a 2024 Washington DOR report, it was found that 65% of the tax savings from this preference went to "placeless financial institutions" - ie. internet banks such as Wealthfront. The elimination of this tax preference will help restore funding to the state's wildfire response, which was lost in our most recent legislative session.

II. Strategic Caution: A Progressive State Income Tax

Statewide Income Tax

OTHER

Type: Policy Area (Opposition to Immediate Implementation)

Although our coalition believes that the long-term, necessary, solution to Washington's regressive tax code would be to instate a well-thought-out, progressive state income tax, we do not believe that the 2026 session is the right time to implement it. A state income tax should NOT be implemented without a comprehensive overhaul of the tax code. A rushed, poorly organized, creation of a state income tax, without other simultaneous changes such as the elimination of sales and sin taxes, a restructuring of property taxes, and a replacement for the state B&O tax, would simply increase the total tax burden on regular Washingtonians. We believe that to implement a statewide income tax during this legislative session would be short-sighted, damaging to the progressive cause, and would be repealed by voters quickly at the ballot.

III. Other Progressive Revenue Policies

Data Center B&O Tax Exemption Removal

PRO

Type: Policy Area (Repeal of Exemption)

The tax break for data centers, which includes exemptions from B&O and Sales/Use taxes, must be removed. As documented by reports like the one in ProPublica, these exemptions are costly corporate giveaways that fail to deliver the promised economic benefits or significant job creation. Closing this loophole would potentially generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state's general fund, which would go directly towards funding social services, and closing our state's looming budget gap.

B&O Tax Overhaul & Simplification (Modeled on SB 5482)

PRO

Type: Policy Area (Modeled on Prior Legislation)

Our State Business & Occupations (B&O) tax is a mess. Due to decades of corporate lobbying, our tax code is riddled with exemptions and credits—many of which may no longer make sense. This complication leads to massive disparities; for example, in 2025Q1, Dentists paid on average 1.7% of their gross revenue into the B&O tax, whereas the Aircraft, Aerospace Manufacturing industry paid only 0.25%. In an ideal world, our state would eliminate the B&O tax in favor of a progressive corporate income tax. In lieu of that, in the short term, our coalition recommends an overhaul of the B&O tax, eliminating the complex exemption and credits system in favor of something simpler—and more fair—such as previous legislation like SB 5482.

Seattle Shield

PRO

Type: City of Seattle Ballot Initiative

UPDATE: as of November 5th, 2025, the Seattle Shield initiative has passed at the ballot. Waittago Seattle! Seattle Shield will restructure Seattle's city Business & Occupation (B&O) tax to be more progressive. This proposal does two things: it increases the exemption threshold, so that businesses making less than $2m in yearly revenue will pay less or no taxes, while increasing the overall tax rate on large corporations, bringing in upwards of $80m in revenue for the city.

Interested in helping us accomplish these goals? Fill out our Interest Form to join the coalition, or learn more by following our social medias below!