“It has been a long journey here to this moment, not just the over 24 hours that we’ve spent on this floor debating this proposal, but the 93 years that Washingtonians have struggled with a grossly outdated tax structure that falls by far the heaviest on the lowest income.”
A 24-hour marathon debate. A 51–46 vote. And a law written with three features every Washingtonian should read for themselves.
Ledger — 1Who pays? Individuals.
The law’s own words: “Only individuals are subject to payment of the tax.” An “individual” is “a natural person.”
Small-business owners are inside the base, because sole-proprietor and pass-through business income is reported on the owner’s personal return — the statute expressly reaches “a business, trade, or profession carried on in this state, including a sole proprietorship.”
ESSB 6346 §§201(1), 101(4), 405(1), 101(7).
Ledger — 2Who doesn’t? Corporations pay $0 of this tax.
A corporation is not an individual — so under this law, a C corporation never gets the bill. The word “corporation” appears in the tax’s operative sections only inside the pass-through definitions.
Families and business owners pay on their personal returns. The biggest structures in the economy are simply outside this tax.
ESSB 6346 §§201(1), 101(4); full-text review of Chapter 238, Laws of 2026.
Ledger — 3You don’t get a vote.
Section 1208 declares the tax “necessary for the support of the state government and its existing public institutions” — the constitutional formula that removes a law from the people’s referendum power.
They didn’t just pass the tax. They wrote it so you couldn’t petition to vote on it.
ESSB 6346 §1208; Wash. Const. art. II, §1(b).
Precision matters, so here it is: this tax applies to household income above the $1,000,000 standard deduction, and “$0” means zero of this tax — corporations still pay other Washington taxes. Both points come straight from the enacted law. What the law never does is send this bill to a corporation.