[WSBARP] real estate agent's business license

[Kary Krismer]

I’m not sure where the DOR is coming up with that position, but the firm is licensed, both by DOL as a brokerage firm, and by the state and city as a business under the licenses that other businesses need.  Only the firm pays taxes to the state and local entities, and they have the option of charging the agents for some of those taxes, but not all.

For a time a few years ago some cities were going to require the individual agents to have a business license in each city that the agent worked in, but the legislature shut that down.  Sorry I don’t have a cite.

BTW, independent contractor doesn’t affect the analysis, at least for L&I.  The firm still has to pay the tax for the agents.

Kary L. Krismer
John L. Scott/KMS Renton
206 723-2148

From: Douglas W. Scott
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2017 2:11 PM
To: WSBA Real Property Listserv (wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com)
Subject: [WSBARP] real estate agent's business license

Client is real estate sales company.  They pay a B&O tax to the dept. of Revenue on the gross income prior to distributing commissions to the individual Relators.  The dept. of Licensing says that each individual agent does not need a separate business license to be properly licensed.  The dept. of Revenue tells me that if the agent is paid on a 1099, then they will need a business license.  How do other RE firms handle this?  

Douglas W. Scott
Law Offices of Douglas W. Scott
Windermere Building
1810 15th Place NW, Suite 203
Issaquah, Washington, 98027
V.  425.392.8550
F.  425-392-2829 
www.davisscottlaw.com


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20170625/18faec7f/attachment.html>