Tacoma was the first city in Washington to provide a credit against your local business tax for every new, permanent, family-wage job a business creates. This applies to eligible persons defined in Tacoma Municipal Code (TMC) 6A.30.065 as a person or company who resides in the City and is engaging in a business activity within the City.
This five-year tax incentive is designed to stimulate business, reward businesses for creating good-paying jobs, and put our citizens to work. That means if you expand your workforce in Tacoma, you can get a credit against the B&O tax of up to $1,500 annually.
How it Works
$500 Base Credit - Qualifying Position
You can get a $500 B&O tax credit every year for five years if you:
- Add a new full-time (35 or more hours/week) job to your Tacoma workforce.
- Pay that new employee the minimum hourly family wage per hour.
- Keep that new position for at least five years. If your employee leaves the position, you have three months to refill it without any reduction in the credit.
- Maintain records that show the growth in your employment base in Tacoma.
- The credit must be taken within 365 days after filling the new position.
Additional $250 credit
You can receive an extra $250 B&O tax credit every year for five years if you add a qualifying position that meets the following criteria:
- Do business in international services, such as computer services, engineering, business consulting or other ventures that reach outside the country’s borders; and
- Add the new job to your workforce in the City of Tacoma within the community empowerment zone or distressed areas, which are areas of high poverty and unemployment as defined by the Washington State Department of Revenue.
Additional $500 credit - Tacoma Resident
You can receive an additional $500 B&O tax credit every year for five years if the person hired to fill the new qualifying position is a resident of Tacoma.
Additional $250 credit - Green Job
You can receive an additional $250 B&O tax credit every year for five years if the new qualifying position is considered a "green job" as defined in TMC 6A.30.065.