Avoid Washington State For Business

We would like to hear from any companies that have had money stolen from them by the Washington State Department of Revenue.  If you are currently in the process of being extorted by the DOR I would be happy to talk to you and offer whatever free advice I can.  I am not an attorney but I have spent thousands of hours over the past 5 years reading every single document I can about the DOR and its “compliance” and “appeal” tactics on out of state small businesses.  If the DOR was a private company their executives would be in jail after being prosecuted by the FTC.  The DOR seems to think that since they are a government agency that they above laws and the constitution and that their employees can act unethically without any repercussions.  And so far, they have been right- they have been able to disregard laws and ethics.

The DOR stole over $129,000 from us and we are trying very hard to get to the bottom of what happened through Freedom of Information Act Public Records Requests.  Of course, these records are being withheld by the State of Washington which is illegal.  The DOR’s first attempt to close our Public Records Request contained less than 1% of the actual documents that we know exist for our matter.  Of course when we told them we could go to the Attorney General and Ethics Board all of a sudden they had more documents, but they still are providing them a snail’s pace and I have doubts as to whether they will ever provide all of them unless we hire an attorney to compel them to do so.

Once we find proof of the wrongdoing and if we can gather enough companies in similar circumstances we could try to find an attorney to file a class action lawsuit against the Department of Revenue.

If you would like any help making a Public Records Request regarding your matter from the DOR just let me know and I can help you draft your request.

You can contact me at tnaple@berkcom.com.  Together we are going to beat the State of Washington Department of Revenue and expose what has happened to us.

Washington State imposes a tax called a B&O Tax on gross receipts.  This means even in the lean, or perhaps even loss, years that you are starting up your business you will still have to pay B&O Tax on any revenue you are collecting even if you are not turning a profit.

If you are thinking of starting up a business in Washington State, consider another more business friendly state.

Before you exhibit at a trade show in Washington State, beware of the following:

• If you exhibit at trade shows in Washington State, even if you are not selling products at the trade show, and even if you are not targeting Washington State customers, the Washington State Department of Revenue (DOR) will attempt to force you to pay Business & Occupation Tax and Sales Tax.  The DOR employees will be very sneaky and will contact your staff trying to convince them that you owe these taxes, even if they never speak to the business owner about it.  If you refuse to pay these alleged taxes they will literally take the money from your checking account and freeze the assets of your company.  The easiest way to avoid all of this is to Avoid Trade Shows in Washington State.

Is the Washington State DOR attempting to force you to pay unlawful taxes as they did with me?  If so, send me an email to tnaple@berkcom.com.  I am not an attorney but I would be happy to talk to you and try to help you any way I can to fight this injustice.

This is an email I sent to the State of Washington on 12/8/2016:

On 12/2/2016 the Washington State Department of Revenue unlawfully and without my permission withdrew $129,315.21 from my checking account and took actions to freeze other assets of my company.

We are a small business in California and are largely family run. I founded the company over 15 years ago in my garage. We are honest people. We pay our Federal and State taxes that are lawfully due.

Sometime around 2015, the Washington State Department of Revenue made contact with some of my employees and an outside CPA firm I had hired. Using unethical and deceptive practices, the Department of Revenue convinced my employees that we had nexus and tax liability in the State of Washington even though we have never had an office in Washington, have never hired an employee in Washington and rarely go there. I was not aware of this activity with the Department of Revenue until months later and when I learned of what was occurring, I got involved and informed the Department of Revenue that we do not have nexus in Washington and that no taxes are due. Unfortunately this has fallen on deaf ears and the State of Washington has decided to simply take this money from me. We tried to appeal but the legal expert assigned by the Department of Revenue that heard our case had less of an understanding of the situation and tax codes than we do. A lot of the argument of the State involves some infrequent visits by non-sales personnel and two tradeshows which occurred in 2014 and 2015 (one each year) even though we do not take orders at those tradeshows, nor did we attend to target Washington customers. Since this issue came up I have read tirelessly every case, rule and law I can get my hands on.

I am going to appeal this to the highest courts in the land to my last dollar. What your state is doing is wrong. It is unconstitutional and unethical. I will do anything I can to prove that and help others from becoming a victim.

I am also going to launch a website explaining the pain that your state has put my family and I through and spend any remaining funds to try to proactively warn businesses from entering or doing business in your state for any reason. I just registered AvoidWashington.com to be a public forum where people can share their horror stories about your Department of Revenue, help coach one other to fight DOR nightmares like the one I have experienced, and help find a more suitable state to conduct business.

What your Washington State Department of Revenue is doing to businesses like mine is unacceptable. I will make sure as many people as possible are made aware until your state changes its practices.