§ 9243. Returns and payment

(a) Where the meals and rooms tax liability under this chapter for the immediately preceding full calendar year has been (or would have been in cases when the business was not operating for the entire year) $500.00 or less, the gross receipts taxes imposed by this chapter shall be due and payable in quarterly installments on or before the 25th day of the calendar month succeeding the quarter ending the last day of March, June, September, and December of each year. In all other cases, the gross receipts tax imposed by this chapter shall be due and payable monthly on or before the 25th (23rd of February) day of the month following the month for which the tax is due. The Commissioner may authorize payment of the tax due by electronic funds transfer. The Commissioner may require payment by electronic funds transfer from any taxpayer who is required by federal tax law to pay any federal tax in that manner, or from any taxpayer who has submitted to the Department of Taxes two or more protested or otherwise uncollectible checks with regard to any State tax payment in the prior two years. Each operator shall make out and sign under the pains and penalties of perjury a return for each quarter or month. The return shall be filed with the Commissioner on a form prescribed by the Commissioner. The Commissioner shall distribute return forms to the operators, upon request, but no operator shall be excused from liability for failure to file a return or pay the tax because he or she has failed to receive a form. A remittance for the amount of taxes shall accompany each quarterly or monthly return. Returns shall be made on forms provided by the Commissioner. Payment of taxes by electronic funds transfer does not affect the requirement to file returns.

(b) The Commissioner may require returns and amended returns to be filed within 20 days after notice and to contain the information specified in the notice. Upon failure of a taxpayer to file any return required under this chapter within 20 days of the date of a notice to the taxpayer, the Commissioner may petition a judge of the Superior Court in the county wherein the taxpayer resides or has a place of business (or, if the taxpayer neither resides nor has a place of business in this State, the Commissioner may petition the Washington Superior Court), and upon the petition of the Commissioner and a hearing, the judge shall issue a citation requiring the taxpayer (and, if the taxpayer is a corporation, any principal officer of such corporation) to file a proper return in accordance with this chapter, upon pain of contempt. The order of notice upon the petition shall be returnable not later than 20 days after the filing of the petition. The petition shall be heard and determined on the return day or on such day thereafter as the court shall fix, having regard to the speediest possible determination of the case consistent with the rights of the parties. The judgment shall include costs in favor of the prevailing party. The Commissioner's authority to petition under this subsection is in addition to the Commissioner's authority under subsection 9273 of this title to compute the tax liability of a taxpayer who fails to file a required return or files an incorrect or insufficient return. (Added 1959, No. 217, § 8; amended 1963, No. 227, § 4; 1964, No. 15 (Sp. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 1, 1964; 1971, No. 73, § 35, eff. April 16, 1971; 1973, No. 42, § 3; 1975, No. 1 (Sp. Sess.), § 13, eff. April 1, 1976; 1989, No. 124 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Feb. 8, 1990; 1989, No. 225 (Adj. Sess.), § 25(b); 1991, No. 67, § 7, eff. June 19, 1991; 1991, No. 186 (Adj. Sess.), § 8(i), eff. May 7, 1992; 1997, No. 156 (Adj. Sess.), § 19, eff. April 29, 1998; 2007, No. 190 (Adj. Sess.), § 25, eff. June 6, 2008; 2017, No. 73, § 5, eff. June 13, 2017.)