4 Reporting
4.8 SAO Annual Report Schedules
4.8.8 Sales and Use Tax for Public Facilities – Rural Counties (Schedule 20)
4.8.8.10 RCW 82.14.370 authorizes rural counties to impose sales and use tax of no more than 0.09 percent. This tax is credited against the 6.5 percent state sales tax and use tax and is paid by the Department of Revenue to eligible rural counties [1]. RCW 82.14.370(3)(b), requires the State Auditor’s Office to collect annual information on the use of these tax proceeds. The purpose of this schedule is to summarize use of these funds and demonstrate compliance.
4.8.8.20 The proceeds of this tax are restricted to financing public facilities [2] serving economic development purposes [3] in rural counties and finance personnel in economic development offices. The public facilities must be listed as an item in the officially adopted county overall economic development plan, or the economic development section of the county’s comprehensive plan, or the comprehensive plan of a city or town located within the county for those counties planning under RCW 36.70A.040, or provide affordable workforce housing infrastructure or facilities. For those counties that do not have an adopted overall economic development plan and do not plan under the Growth Management Act, the public facilities must be listed in the county’s public facilities plan or the capital facilities plan of a city or town located within the county, or provide affordable workforce housing infrastructure or facilities. No new projects funded with this money may be for justice system facilities.
The county must consult with cities, towns, and port districts located within the county and the associate development organization serving the county to ensure that the expenditure of money collected under the sales and use tax for public facilities RCW meets the goals of creating, attracting, expanding, and retaining businesses, providing family wage jobs, and providing affordable workforce housing infrastructure or facilities and the use of money collected under this section meets the requirements of the law.
4.8.8.30 The counties collecting this tax must file an annual schedule with the State Auditor’s Office 150 days after close of their fiscal year, listing the projects funded by this tax revenue in the previous fiscal year.
4.8.8.40 The schedule should be prepared on the same basis of accounting, for the same period and reporting entity, and using the same underlying accounting records as the Schedule 01 and financial statements.
4.8.8.50 The template for the filing system is available on SAO’s website page at BARS Reporting Templates.
Preparing the preformatted Schedule 20 template to upload into the filing system
Column A: List the name of the public facilities project. The name listed here should be the same as the project name listed in the government’s plan containing the project.
Note: Users (legislature, audit, etc.) of the Schedule 20 report information may review the plan document for additional information therefore use of the same project name is important.
Column B: Select from the drop down in the excel template the name of the government’s plan where the project is listed (e.g., Capital Facilities Plan, Comprehensive Plan, Economic Development Plan, etc.).
Column C: Name the lead agency for the project (e.g., City of Sample, Port of Sample, Sample County, etc.)
Column D: Provide a brief detailed description of the following: (1) purpose of the project, (2) of what the project expenditures entail (3) how the project meets the requirements of the RCW. This is limited to 500 characters.
Example 1: Construct ~20,000 sq. ft. Light industrial building at the Port of Example, costs include payment to construction company and project manager. This project will increase consumer product storage, bringing new shipping and receiving businesses to the area and increased access to consumer goods, increasing economic development and job growth.
Example 2: City of Sample is improving the recreation center, paying expenses for the construction company. This project will increase capacity in the theater area of the community center to bring in new entertainment to the area, increasing and promoting tourism and economic growth.
Example 3: Hired an economic development staff member to focus on increasing tourism to the area over the next three years. Expenses include staff wages, benefits, and required supplies for the employee to start work.
Column E: Select from the dropdown in the excel template the category of the project (e.g., Public Facilities, Economic Development Purposes, Economic Development Office, etc.) which is defined by RCW 82.14.370(C).
Column F: Input the year the project started. Must be inputted as the 4-digit fiscal year to avoid any upload errors.
Column G: Input the year the project is expected to be completed. Must be inputted as the 4-digit fiscal year to avoid any upload errors.
Column H: Input the specific amount of sales and use tax spent on the project in the fiscal year. Example: Project A spent $10,000 in sales and use tax in FY2022, therefore the total in column H would be $10,000 when reporting to SAO in 2023.
Column I: Input the accumulative total sales and use tax proceeds expended on the project from prior years up through the current fiscal year for which the government is reporting for. Example: Project A spent $10,000 in sales and use tax starting FY 2022, therefore the total in column I would be $10,000. Additionally, Project B has spent $25,000 in prior years and spent $25,000 in the current fiscal year, therefore column I would report $50,000.
Column J: Input the estimated number of businesses created and retained by the project. This number should carry over from year to year and only change if additional businesses are created/retained due to the project. Must be inputted as a number and no alpha characters will be accepted for the upload into the filing system. A number is required in this field and if left blank will result in an error after uploading into the filing system.
Column K: Input the estimated number of jobs created and retained by the project. This number should carry over from year to year and only change when jobs are either removed or added due to the project. Must be inputted as a number and no alpha characters will be accepted for the upload into the filing system. A number is required in this field and if left blank will result in an error after uploading into the filing system.
Sample Template of Schedule of Sales and Use Tax for Public Facilities
| (A) | (B) | (C) | (D) | (E) | (F) | (G) | (H) | (I) | (J) | (K) |
| Public Facilities Project Name | Plan Containing the Project | Lead Agency for Project | Project Description | Project Category | Project Start Year (YYYY) | Est. Project Completion Year (YYYY) | Amount of Sales & Use Tax Spent on the Project this Fiscal Year | County’s Cumulative Total of Sales & Use Tax Spent through this Fiscal Year | Est. # of Businesses Created/Retained by the Project | Est. # of Jobs Created/Retained by the Project |
| $ | $ | |||||||||
| $ | $ | |||||||||
| $ | $ | |||||||||
| $ | $ | |||||||||
| $ | $ | |||||||||
| $ | $ |
Footnotes
[1] Rural County means a county with a population density of less than one hundred persons per square mile or a county smaller than two hundred twenty-five square miles as determined by the Office of Financial Management.
Return to Reference 1
[2] Public Facilities means bridges, roads, domestic and industrial water facilities, sanitary sewer facilities, earth stabilization, storm sewer facilities, railroads, electricity, natural gas, buildings, structures, telecommunication infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, or commercial infrastructure and port facilities.
Return to Reference 2
[3] The legislative goal for RCW 82.14.370 is to promote the creation, attraction, expansion, and retention of businesses and provide for family wage jobs. Economic development means those purposes which facilitate the creation or retention of businesses and jobs in a county.
Return to Reference 3