// Exemption
Newspapers
Retail Sales & Use Tax exemption · RCW 82.08.0253; 82.12.0345; 82.08.0253(1)(b) · enacted 1935
Details
- Citation
- RCW 82.08.0253; 82.12.0345; 82.08.0253(1)(b)
- Study reference
- E1576-1
- Tax type
- Retail Sales & Use Tax
- Preference type
- Exemption
- Category
- Individuals
- Year enacted
- 1935
- End date
- None scheduled
Fiscal impact (2024 study estimates)
- Revenue if repealed — local ($M)
- FY 2024: 0 · FY 2025: 0.142 · FY 2026: 0.151 · FY 2027: 0.147
- Revenue if repealed — state ($M)
- FY 2024: 0 · FY 2025: 0.319 · FY 2026: 0.338 · FY 2027: 0.329
- Taxpayer savings — local ($M)
- FY 2024: 0.176 · FY 2025: 0.171 · FY 2026: 0.167 · FY 2027: 0.162
- Taxpayer savings — state ($M)
- FY 2024: 0.391 · FY 2025: 0.381 · FY 2026: 0.371 · FY 2027: 0.361
CTI = confidential taxpayer information · D = unable to disclose
From the 2024 DOR Tax Exemption Study
Newspapers. Generally, retail sales and use tax does not apply to sales of newspapers transferred electronically, provided that the electronic version has a printed counterpart, and the electronic version: (a) Shares content with the printed newspaper; and (b) Is prominently identified by the same name as the printed newspaper or otherwise conspicuously indicates that it is a complement to the printed newspaper. (c) "Printed newspaper" means a publication issued regularly at stated intervals at least twice a month and printed on newsprint in tabloid or broadsheet format folded loosely together without stapling, glue, or any other binding of any kind, including any supplement of a printed newspaper.
Does this apply to you?
This is reference data from the 2024 study — not advice, and 2025–26 legislation may have changed it. Three ways to go deeper: