(The Center Square) – A bill to impose an excise tax on owners of online dating applications was introduced in the Washington State Legislature on Tuesday.
The legislation, if passed, would generate revenue to fund efforts at combating domestic violence.
“The tax under this chapter is imposed on an owner of an online dating application and is based on the number of resident individuals that are both free and paid users or members of an online dating application each month, as reported by the owner to the department,” House Bill 2071 reads. “The rate of the tax is $1 per resident individual member per month.”
There is no fiscal note yet on HB 2071, but sponsor Rep. Lauren Davis, D-Shoreline, took a guess at how much revenue the bill could generate if it becomes law.
“I am waiting for an estimate from the Department of Revenue,” she said in an email to The Center Square. “By my own calculations, there are approximately 500K current online dating users in WA state, which would translate to approximately $6 million per year in revenue.”
According to the bill, “Taxes collected under this chapter must be deposited into the domestic violence services account” to be “created in the state treasury. All receipts paid from the tax imposed in this chapter must be deposited in the account.”
Davis explained her motivation for HB 2071.
“Our state’s criminal legal system is a nightmare for victims – the system is designed for the protection of defendants, not victims,” she said. “I cannot fathom how I would’ve ever navigated the system successfully without a victim advocate, and I am rightly horrified that similarly situated victims will no longer receive help. The purpose of this tax proposal is to keep the state’s promise to crime victims and not defund victims’ services. Though a nexus is not required for a tax as it is for a fee, there is a reasonable nexus between online dating apps and domestic violence.”
She went on to say, “The bill would also create a sustainable funding stream for domestic violence intervention treatment (DVIT), also known as perpetrator treatment or batterer’s treatment. DVIT is not covered by insurance. Most DV perpetrators are indigent. Therefore, most DV perpetrators go untreated. This is a huge public safety problem.”
The Center Square asked about the requirements the bill would put on the owners of online dating applications.
“An owner must maintain records necessary as required by the department, including records that allow the department to determine the number of resident individual members of the online dating application per month,” the bill states. “An owner must file a monthly return as required by the department. An owner of an online dating application that pays the tax imposed under section 2 of this act in a given month must file a return in subsequent months until it reports no tax liability for 12 consecutive months.”
Davis said, “I am open to feedback from the online dating companies about how best to collect this information. However, this information would be necessary to implement the tax. It would be my strong suspicion that companies could pull this data from existing systems with relative ease.”
Online dating platforms Match.com and eHarmony.com did not respond to a request for comment on HB 2071.
Jason Mercier, vice president and director of research at the Mountain States Policy Center think tank, had a little fun with the bill’s subject matter.
“You can’t buy love, but apparently Washington can try to tax it, leaving us all a little heartbroken,” he said.
