Richland, WA Local Taxes & Fees: Business Tax Classification (2026)

Richland Municipal Code Chapter 5.04 sorts every business operating in the city into rate classes under Section 5.04.130. Class one covers professions (attorneys, accountants, physicians, dentists, veterinarians, engineers, architects and similar professionals), retail and wholesale sellers (including mobile food vendors with a Benton-Franklin County food service permit), general service businesses, and day care operations; each pays $40 plus $12 for every full-time equivalent employee beyond two. Class two covers property rental operators with three or more rented units and nonprofits with more than 20 Richland employees; those businesses pay the same $40 plus $12 per-employee formula plus an additional $2 for each apartment, commercial unit, house, storage unit or mobile home space rented or available for rent.

The Finance Director counts full-time equivalents under Sections 5.04.140 through 5.04.160: an employee working more than 1,248 hours in the preceding 12 months counts as one, part-time hours are pooled and divided by 1,248, and employees who work primarily outside Richland are excluded unless the business's headquarters sits inside city limits and it pays no Benton County license fee. Section 5.04.245 exempts a business from these classifications if its annual gross income in the city is $2,000 or less and it has no local place of business; that threshold rises to $4,000 on January 1, 2026, and adjusts every 48 months by the CPI-U, capped at a 5 percent annual increase. Operating without the required license violates Section 5.04.170 and is enforced separately from the tax classification itself.