Are Washington lawmakers about to tax storage unit rentals?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Washington Democrats are looking at taxing storage units as a way to help bridge the state’s multibillion-dollar budget shortfall and raise new money for housing.

House Bill 1907 would redefine self-storage unit rentals as retail transactions subject to the state’s main business tax and sales and use tax. Storage rentals in Washington are now treated like an arrangement between a renter and a landlord, with neither the consumer nor the business paying these taxes.

By changing this to a retail sale, similar to buying an item at a store, consumers would pay sales tax with every payment for their storage unit. Washington’s sales tax is 6.5% at the state level and local taxes can bring it up to around 10%.

Estimates attached to the bill show it would raise about $57.6 million for the next two-year state budget and around $90 million in the two-year cycle after that. Those totals do not include local government revenue.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/02/25/are-washington-lawmakers-about-to-tax-storage-unit-rentals/

[LisaM]

1. What a terrible idea. Another user tax that will affect renters.

We already have to deal with small living spaces and big increases in rent; now this? We have the most regressive taxes in the country as it is. This also won't affect rich people at all. They don't need storage units (we use ours for stuff we had when we had an extra room and for our Christmas stuff).

What an awful proposition.