Washington

Rural-county data center sales-tax exemption

Incentive or explicitly supportive policy

In effect This instrument is recorded as currently in effect as of the dataset date.

Summary

Washington RCW 82.08.986 exempts eligible server equipment and eligible power infrastructure for a qualifying computer data center that is in a rural county when the exemption application is received and that meets the section's size and construction-timing conditions. The opened code says the exemptions provided in the section expire on 1 July 2048, and the section heading states the same expiration. A narrower sentence says certificates for data centers that qualify through refurbishment under subsection (1)(e) expire on 1 July 2026. That earlier date is not stored as the end of the whole section. The use-tax counterpart was not opened. This exemption does not apply, on this section's text, to a data center outside a rural county.

Scope

RCW 82.08.986 provides a sales-tax exemption for eligible server equipment and eligible power infrastructure installed in an eligible computer data center, and for listed installation labor, when a valid exemption certificate applies. An eligible computer data center must be located in a rural county as defined in RCW 82.14.370 when the application is received, have at least 20,000 square feet dedicated to housing working servers, and have construction commence in one of the date windows the section states, including after 30 June 2015 and before 1 July 2035. The section says the exemptions it provides expire 1 July 2048. A separate sentence says the refurbishment-certificate path in subsection (1)(e) expires 1 July 2026. This record does not treat a rural-county certificate as coverage of a data center in every Washington county.

Geographic scope
Washington
Jurisdiction
State
Authority type
Legislature
Issuing authority
Washington State Legislature

Dates

Adopted
No adoption day is recorded
Effective
Several dates apply; see the source
Scheduled expiration
1 July 2048
Ended
Not recorded as ended
Completion condition
The section says the exemptions it provides expire on 1 July 2048. Construction-commencement windows and the refurbishment-certificate sentence are qualification limits, not substitutes for that section expiration.
Source document
The source page states no document date
Last checked
23 September 2026
About this date

This record was last checked before the tracker date, 11 November 2026. An earlier check date does not by itself mean the record's status has changed.

What this does not establish

  • The 1 July 2026 date applies to the refurbishment-certificate path in subsection (1)(e). It is not the expiration of RCW 82.08.986.
  • Washington chapter 266 of 2026 removed the replacement-server-equipment path effective 1 July 2026. It did not repeal the whole rural-county exemption.
  • The construction-commencement window that runs until 1 July 2035 is a qualification condition for an eligible computer data center. It is not stored as the section's expiration.
  • RCW 82.12.986, the use-tax counterpart, was not opened. This record is the sales-tax section only.
  • A certificate is applicant-specific. The section being in effect does not mean a named facility holds one.
  • The same section says no new exemption certificates may be issued on or after July 1, 2036. That is a certificate cutoff, not the July 1, 2048 section expiration.

Unresolved questions

  • Which counties meet the rural-county definition in RCW 82.14.370 on the review date was not recalculated.
  • How many refurbishment certificates the department issued before 1 July 2026 was not counted.

Relationships

Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. Repeal links identify the repeal instrument and the measure it ends. A later implementation or related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.

Sources

Primary source: Washington State Legislature page on app.leg.wa.gov

    Back to the policy tracker ยท Washington policy module