Jump in businesses ditching Washington for Idaho due to high taxes
Apr 20, 2025, 5:02 AM
A new report from the Association of Washington Business (AWB) shows Idaho as “the most-listed destination for businesses planning to move out of the state.” Nearly two-thirds of the businesses planning to ditch Washington cite high taxes as the reason.
The spring 2025 survey says an alarming 12% of Washington employers say they plan to relocate out of the state, up from 9% in the winter survey. Worse, 26% want to expand outside of Washington state, up from 21% three months ago.
A full 61% of employers who intend to move out of state point to Washington’s tax burden as their main reason. In the broader survey, 52% of all respondents named the overall tax burden as the biggest challenge facing their business, and 43% said reducing taxes should be the state’s top priority to help them.
Businesses are already warning Washington Democrats about tax hikes
The report comes as big businesses have forcefully and publicly pushed back against Washington Democrats’ plan to implement tax hikes on large and small businesses, property owners, and “the wealthy.”
“Washington state cannot sustain continued tax and spending increases and simultaneously maintain our economic resilience and competitiveness,” dozens of big businesses wrote to the legislature earlier this month.
The signatories include Amazon, Microsoft, Seattle Mariners, Alaska Airlines, Costco, and Puget Sound Energy.
Governor Bob Ferguson recently rejected the second tax-heavy plan announced by Washington Democrats. The plan would have raised $12 billion from five new taxes in order to help fill a $16 billion deficit.
“At a time of great economic uncertainty and assaults by the Trump Administration on core state services for working families,” Ferguson said, “raising $12 billion in taxes is unsustainable, too risky, and fails to adequately prepare Washington state for the crisis that looms ahead.”
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