Changes in Washington Excise Taxes for 2001

October,  2000 --  For our clients with ownership (Fee lands) in Washington State, the fact that Forest Excise Tax Rules are changing is probably not news at all.  What probably is good news, is CT3 has already made the modifications to an Excise Tax module in our test system to accommodate these changes.

Washington State will substantially change their rules as of January 1, 2001, particularly for Western Washington.  The changes are meant to better reflect the changing characteristics of logs harvested today and of current logging practices.  The number of Timber Quality codes has been reduced for several common species.  There are also fewer Harvest Adjustment Types and slope is no longer a criteria for determining adjustments.  Finally, some of the haul zone boundaries have been reestablished.  These rule changes are quite significant.  Therefore, CT3's Excise Tax module will need to be revised for any of our current clients who will continue harvesting logs in Washington during 2001.  Unlike in the past, returns for prior years cannot be recalculated after the 2001 changes have been made.  Therefore, CT3 will be rolling out the Excise Tax modifications to our customers during first quarter of 2001.  CT3 would like to say "Thank you" to the Weyerhaeuser Company.  They gave us the "heads up" on this issue, and thus, the time to get the changes made, well in advance of our customer's needs.