An enclave of Washington’s wealthy provided a backdrop Oct. 8 for a saucy debate on the merits and dangers of a ballot measure to erase the state’s controversial new income tax on millionaires.

With Election Day less than a month away, lawmakers in several states are suspending gas taxes or rolling back regulations on diesel fuel as voters grow increasingly frustrated with rising fuel costs amid President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently released new guidance for participating states, scholarship-granting organizations and taxpayers as the federal scholarship tax credit program prepares to take effect in January. 

The latest forecast of state tax collections released Friday did nothing to brighten Washington’s budget outlook.

Since Washington adopted its new income tax in March, the law has continued to generate intense debate. Yet with a constitutional challenge pending and a repeal measure headed to voters, many are asking a simple question: Will anyone ever pay it?

The president of a nonprofit coalition of the state’s largest companies doesn’t deny business owners are feeling pressured from all sides. But Rachel Smith, president of Washington Roundtable, is “not part of the Chicken Little crowd."

A last-ditch legal effort nearly succeeded Sept. 3 to knock a statement off ballots that characterizes how repealing Washington’s new income tax on high earners would affect the state budget.

Want to get a better grasp of how state taxes apply to your industry or starting your first business and not sure how to move forward? Check out online and in-person resources through the state’s Department of Revenue. 

A new analysis from the state Department of Revenue shows Washington’s high-earner income tax will be paid by thousands of additional households and produce hundreds of millions of dollars more than previously assumed – if voters don’t ditch it this fall. 

A Thurston County judge on Aug. 7 upheld a one-sentence statement that will appear on ballots describing the budgetary consequences of an initiative to repeal Washington’s new income tax on high earners.