Seattle

Review the Business Climate

How it's done

The business climate is the general economic environment that local businesses operate in. Reviewing and understanding the local business climate provides valuable insights about the economy, costs, risks, and incentives that may impact the success of your business. This activity will guide you to better understand the business climate in Seattle and help you answer the following fundamental questions.

WHAT is the business climate in Seattle?
WHAT costs and assistance should I know about?
HOW do I use this information?

What is the business climate in Seattle?

We have compiled the most important aspects of Seattle’s business climate as an interactive dashboard below. This dashboard provides valuable economic, resident, household, dwelling and development indicators that may influence the success of your business.

What costs and assistance should I know about?

Whether you have a new or existing business it is critical to be aware of costs, incentives and grants that impact your business. This dashboard provides you with a snapshot of the major costs of conducting business in Seattle and assistance available to Seattle businesses.

The Seattle business license tax is applied to the gross revenue that businesses earn. It is sometimes called the Seattle business and occupation tax (B&O tax) or gross receipts tax. The rate varies by business type and is only applied to businesses with gross revenue of $100,000 or more.

Business Type	Tax rate
Service and Other Business Activities	.415%
Retail Sales and Retail Services	.215%
Wholesaling	.215%
Manufacturing or Extracting	.215%
Tour Operator or Processing for Hire	.215%
Transporting Freight for Hire	.415%
Printing or Publishing	.215%
International Investment Management Services	.150%

Businesses that require a regulatory endorsement

The City of Seattle regulates some business activities. These businesses require both a standard business license tax certificate and a regulatory endorsement on the license.

Review this list to see if your business requires a regulatory endorsement. Common businesses include cannabis, taxis, for-hire vehicles, and transportation network companies.

Washington State Taxes

The Washington State Department of Revenue has a guide to the state tax obligations of specific industries.

A new business such as a restaurant, shop, or office in a commercial building may require several different kinds of permits. If you're opening a home business, different rules apply. You may need one or more of the permits below to open a business.

Change of use

You need a construction permit to establish use if your new business is different than the former business that was in the space -- for example, you want to open a retail store in a space that was previously an office – even if you are not planning to remodel the space.

Construction

You may only need a construction subject-to-field-inspection permit if you will be remodeling your space but not changing its use — for example, you want to open a restaurant in a space that last held a restaurant. The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections tries to issue these permits on the day you apply.

If you don’t qualify for a subject-to-field-inspection construction permit, you will need a construction addition/alteration permit to remodel a space.

Visit the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections for information on permits and costs.

The list below contains the average annual wages in King County. Visit the Washington State Employment Security Department for reports on additional industries and occupations.

2 digit NAICS	Industry description	Average annual employment	Average annual wage
TOTAL	TOTAL	1,274,371	$72,451
11	Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting	2,459	$67,416
21	Mining	*	*
22	Utilities	*	*
23	Construction	62,948	$66,001
31-33	Manufacturing	106,258	$85,321
42	Wholesale trade	61,103	$84,101
44-45	Retail trade	131,946	$52,667
48-49	Transportation and warehousing	46,240	$62,124
51	Information	88,889	$174,003
52	Finance and insurance	41,259	$107,680
53	Real estate and rental and leasing	25,178	$57,860
54	Professional and technical services	113,015	$96,540
55	Management of companies and enterprises	30,058	$113,573
56	Administrative and waste services	68,845	$54,099
61	Educational services	20,609	$38,863
62	Health care and social assistance	139,850	$52,905
71	Arts, entertainment, and recreation	*	*
72	Accommodation and food services	103,913	$24,485
81	Other services, except public administration	42,276	$42,884
	GOVERNMENT	163,802	$66,284

* Employment and wages not shown to avoid disclosure of data for individual employer.

Washington Business Incentives

The State of Washington offers several incentives for businesses of all sizes. Your business may qualify for multiple incentives, which come in the form of deferrals, reduced B&O rates, exemptions and credits. Learn more

General Manufacturing	Biofuel Industry
Rural County/Community Empowerment Zone (CEZ) Incentives	Semiconductor Industry
High Unemployment County/CEZ	Aluminum Smelting Industry
Employer	Farming & Agriculture
High Technology Industry	Renewable Energy/Green Incentives
Aerospace Industry	Miscellaneous Incentive Programs
Extracting & Timber Manufacturing	Warehouse Incentive Programs
Food Manufacturing Industry

Energy Efficiency and Resource Conservation

Incentives, tools and assistance to help your business conserve resources and prevent pollution. Learn how your business can reduce costs, gain a competitive edge, and contribute to a clean and healthy community.

Seattle City Light Business Conservation Services
Seattle Public Utilities Green Business Program

Film Production

Washington State offers a 30% cash-back in 30 days funding assistance to qualifying film productions for all money spent in Washington State, capped annually at $3.5M. Washington Filmworks also allocates $350K annually to support Washington resident filmmakers and filmmakers using new forms of production and emerging technologies through their Innovation Lab program. Learn more

Film Permits

To encourage the growth of the local film industry and attract out-of-region film productions, the City of Seattle offers a $25/day (or $25/14 days for student productions and productions with budgets under $10K) film permit, plus one-stop-shop permitting for filming on any public City of Seattle property, including City Parks, streets, sidewalks, and buildings. Learn more

Business Assistance and Financing

Business and Industry Organizations

How do I use this information?

Having access to business climate statistics and information is one thing, but it's quite another to use data effectively and in a way that will benefit your business. This next section will help you do just that. Learn how to use this information to make better business decisions.

Monitor the local business climate

On-going assessment of the business climate is an essential part of operating a competitive business. In any business climate, there are numerous factors outside your control that will impact your business, both positively and negatively. The health of the economy impacts all businesses, but small businesses usually feel the effect of economic changes faster than big businesses. Improvements in the economy typically provide a rapid increase in new opportunities for small businesses, while an economic downturn can have a significant and prolonged negative impact.

Unfortunately, you can’t influence the economy, but you can monitor the business climate indicators provided above and then take the necessary actions to minimize risks to your business. Staying up to date with the business climate can also help you identify new opportunities that your business can take advantage of.

Know your costs

All industries are unique and incur different types of costs when starting or operating. Understanding these costs is essential when it comes to setting prices, budgeting and planning for growth or downturns. We’ve provided some of the local costs associated with taxes, development and labor that often get overlooked by businesses. There may be other municipal and state costs that apply to your business so we encourage you to contact us to find out more.

Where can I learn more about the business climate?

While we are providing you with a range of valuable information about the business climate, the fact is that there's much more available. In this section we provide you with links to other websites that will supplement our information and help to keep your finger on the pulse.

There may also be other municipal and state costs that apply to your business so we encourage you to contact us to find out more.

	Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber represents 2,200 small, medium and large businesses across the four-county Puget Sound region. Learn more
	Washington State Department of Commerce The Department of Commerce is the one agency in state government that touches every aspect of community and economic development: planning, infrastructure, energy, public facilities, housing, international trade, business services and more. They work with local governments, businesses and civic leaders throughout the state. Learn more
	Washington State Office of Financial Management The Office of Financial Management provides vital information, fiscal services and policy support that the Governor, Legislature and state agencies need to serve the people of Washington State. Learn more
	Bureau of Economic Analysis – US Department of Commerce BEA provides a better understanding of the U.S. economy by providing the most timely, relevant, and accurate economic data related to a variety of regional accounts. Learn more
	Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) Database maintained by the research division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis that has more than 421,000 economic time series from 81 sources. The data can be viewed in graphical and text form or downloaded for import to a database or spreadsheet, and viewed on mobile devices. Learn more