Business Transportation 'Head' Tax for companies with employees working in Seattle

The City of Seattle will implement new taxes, effective July 1, 2007. One of these taxes, the Business Transportation Tax or 'head tax' will impact your company financially if you have employees working in the City of Seattle who commute by driving a single occupancy vehicle. The second tax is a tax on the cost of parking in a commercial lot, which may affect your employees, your customers or your company, depending on who pays for the parking. Both taxes are described here. [.PDF 32kb]

Businesses may reduce the head tax due by encouraging employees to commute by transit or other alternate modes and taking the applicable deductions.

To compute your tax, the city provides two versions of a computation worksheet.

• 2007 manual worksheet [.PDF 282kb]
• 2007 electronic worksheet with an automatic calculation feature [.PDF 1784kb]

Whichever form you choose, please print it out and include a copy with your tax form.

For questions about the new taxes, please contact the City's information line at 206-684-8484 or email rcabizlictx@ci.seattle.wa.us

If your company would like ideas for encouraging its employees to switch from driving alone to using transit or other alternative commute modes, please fill out the form at the bottom of this page or contact a Metro Employer Transportation Representative.

For additional assistance fill out the company information form or contact Employer Services by e-mail employer.program@kingcounty.gov or by phone 206-263-3444.