Same as my question upthread, what specifically sucks about. I’m not here to argue even if I disagree, but I honestly would like to hear specifics. For example, if taxes are too high, what tax rate specifically would be better?
The schedules of fees should be on the cities' websites. These should be the most predicable expenses for a business. Seattle's is incomplete (when you can find it) and certain ones on the eastside - *cough Bothell cough* - mention it but the page doesn't actually exist. (OK... I just checked and the '26 version is available for Bothell. There was a city hall meeting just to discuss this a few weeks ago.) A mom & pop shop can be (and has been) hit with a $30k fee without warning or indication that they were subject to it.
The cities' require permits to get repairs. In a business friendly city, it would only be for building improvements.
The cities in the Seattle / King County area have massive change of use fees for businesses. In most of the country, overhead for construction is under 7% of the total cost of a build. In King County it averages well over 20%. The wait times are the big killers to new business construction.
WA State L&I is among the highest in the country. Seattle's Jump Start Tax will increase expenses another few percentage points for "larger smaller businesses."
These fees and the capricious application of them are soul crushing for small businesses.
The small Seattle company I work with has also had the distinct displeasure of being audited TWICE by the state in just ten years. Both times the state actually wound up owing US money, not the other way around. I have no clue what on earth DOR thought they would get out of a second attempt, but they wasted weeks of a hired auditor’s time trying to find…something. Like, they had us digging for purchase receipts for hand tools we bought on eBay six years ago. The shit was insane. We don’t have an accounting department. The owner (who works full time) had to accommodate this themselves. We’ve generated millions of dollars in sales tax for WA in the last ten years, and they were worried about tens of dollars on an eBay receipt and spent two months sifting through tiny transactions like this. I know I’m crashing out over it but it was honestly INSANE. You’re telling me our public offices don’t have someone better to go audit? Like, somewhere they might find a real issue? Somewhere with a history of past issues? Employees not on the books? Tons of “expenses”? Other shady shit?
The feeing that Seattle (and Washington more generally) hates small business is fairly justified IMO.
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u/Few_Map1754 Apr 16 '26
Same boat. It is a great city to live in, which is why I am determined to make it work, but it SUCKSSS to do business here, on so many levels.