The Seattle-Search.com Blog

Last Tuesday, the Washington state Senate passed ESHB 2075, the digital goods tax bill by a vote of 28-20. What does the bill mean to you?

The bill that requires sellers of digital goods and “digital automated services” to collect sales tax on Washington consumers for such items as ringtones, digital music, digital audio and video, digital books as well as web services such as online expense reporting, online subscriptions of all types and other online services where an end user pays for an item that is a digital product or service.  Nothing changes if an online business receives advertising revenue.

There are a number of exemptions for business use of digital goods, although not complete.

For sellers of digital products, the B&O tax rate drops from 1.5% to .471%, which is about 68% lower.  There are a number of other provisions including an amnesty for uncollected sales tax on sales that were deemed by the Dept. of Revenue to be equivalent to tangible personal property.

The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) announced it will be working with the Dept. of Revenue to help companies comply with the new law. Workshops and seminars are being planned.

The bill as it passed the legislature is online at http://www.washingtontechnology.org/community/blogs/wsagovtaffairs/attachment/514.ashx

Medical students and interns/residents from the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation’s oldest and largest independent association for more than 67,000 physicians-in-training, are now available to answer online health questions from the public for free on Healia Communities (http://communities.healia.com).

Where once people looked to friends and acquaintances for advice on topics such as where to find reputable medical information and what kind of doctor to visit for a particular set of symptoms, a trained group of medical students will now be available to answer many of people’s common health questions. Healia and medical students are working together to make trusted health information available — anywhere, anytime, and at no cost.

“The problem is that many people are rightly hesitant to use the Web for health questions because they have little or no confidence that their questions will be answered by someone who is actually qualified to do so,” said Tom Eng, Founder and President of Healia. “Through this partnership with AMSA, we hope that people will take advantage of this unique opportunity to get trusted information and learned insight from doctors-in-training who are actively studying the latest research and developments in medical science.”

In addition to asking health questions, Healia Communities members can share their experiences and knowledge and make connections with others who have similar health interests and concerns. There are more than 250 active communities including allergy, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, breast cancer, diabetes, exercise and fitness, heart diseases and weight management.