Steve Carter
Sophomore Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2006
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Washington
Recently I heard on a Seattle area radio station that the governor and/or a legislator is proposing a 10% sales tax on all Professional services, that would include we appraisers and Realtors.
Now I know there seems to be an infinite number of appraisers who haven't found themselves enslaved to AMC's, but for those of us who do work for them, I'm pretty sure how this is going to work out (if passed). The AMC's are going to lower our fees in the neighborhood of 10% and add back in the tax, resulting in a 10% reduction in fees.
For those of us not involved with AMC's, we will be faced with added costs and time expenditure to collect and process the sales tax.
Here's a link to an article that touches on the topic. The sales tax on Professional services is in the 14th paragraph.
http://www.theolympian.com/stategovernment/story/1046071.html
And if all that is bad enough, consider the impact this might have on the Real Estate market, when Realtors will need to add 10% to the costs of selling a home (or take a 10% cut in their commissions - yeah they're going to do that :icon_rolleyes: ).
Might be time to pay attention to what's going on in Olympia.
Now I know there seems to be an infinite number of appraisers who haven't found themselves enslaved to AMC's, but for those of us who do work for them, I'm pretty sure how this is going to work out (if passed). The AMC's are going to lower our fees in the neighborhood of 10% and add back in the tax, resulting in a 10% reduction in fees.
For those of us not involved with AMC's, we will be faced with added costs and time expenditure to collect and process the sales tax.
Here's a link to an article that touches on the topic. The sales tax on Professional services is in the 14th paragraph.
http://www.theolympian.com/stategovernment/story/1046071.html
And if all that is bad enough, consider the impact this might have on the Real Estate market, when Realtors will need to add 10% to the costs of selling a home (or take a 10% cut in their commissions - yeah they're going to do that :icon_rolleyes: ).
Might be time to pay attention to what's going on in Olympia.