(1) Beginning January 1, 2022, an excise tax is imposed on the sale or exchange of long-term capital assets. Only individuals are subject to payment of the tax, which equals seven percent multiplied by an individual’s Washington capital gains.
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Terms Used In Washington Code 82.87.040

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
(2) The tax levied in subsection (1) of this section is necessary for the support of the state government and its existing public institutions.
(3) If an individual’s Washington capital gains are less than zero for a taxable year, no tax is due under this section and no such amount is allowed as a carryover for use in the calculation of that individual’s adjusted capital gain, as defined in RCW 82.87.020(1), for any taxable year. To the extent that a loss carryforward is included in the calculation of an individual’s federal net long-term capital gain and that loss carryforward is directly attributable to losses from sales or exchanges allocated to this state under RCW 82.87.100, the loss carryforward is included in the calculation of that individual’s adjusted capital gain for the purposes of this chapter. An individual may not include any losses carried back for federal income tax purposes in the calculation of that individual’s adjusted capital gain for any taxable year.
(4)(a) The tax imposed in this section applies to the sale or exchange of long-term capital assets owned by the taxpayer, whether the taxpayer was the legal or beneficial owner of such assets at the time of the sale or exchange. The tax applies when the Washington capital gains are recognized by the taxpayer in accordance with this chapter.
(b) For purposes of this chapter:
(i) An individual is considered to be a beneficial owner of long-term capital assets held by an entity that is a pass-through or disregarded entity for federal tax purposes, such as a partnership, limited liability company, S corporation, or grantor trust, to the extent of the individual’s ownership interest in the entity as reported for federal income tax purposes.
(ii) A nongrantor trust is deemed to be a grantor trust if the trust does not qualify as a grantor trust for federal tax purposes, and the grantor’s transfer of assets to the trust is treated as an incomplete gift under Title 26 U.S.C. § 2511 of the internal revenue code and its accompanying regulations. A grantor of such trust is considered the beneficial owner of the capital assets of the trust for purposes of the tax imposed in this section and must include any long-term capital gain or loss from the sale or exchange of a capital asset by the trust in the calculation of that individual’s adjusted capital gain, if such gain or loss is allocated to this state under RCW 82.87.100.

NOTES:

Contingency—2021 c 196 §§ 5 and 16: “(1) If a court of competent jurisdiction, in a final judgment not subject to appeal, adjudges section 5 of this act unconstitutional, or otherwise invalid, in its entirety, section 16 of this act is null and void in its entirety. Any credits previously claimed under section 16 of this act must be repaid within 30 days of the department of revenue’s notice to the taxpayer of the amount due.
(2) If the taxpayer fails to repay the credit by the due date, interest and penalties as provided in chapter 82.32 RCW apply to the deficiency.” [ 2021 c 196 § 20.]
Automatic expiration date and tax preference performance statement exemption—2021 c 196: See note following RCW 82.87.010.
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