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IMAAR Associates CPA, PLLC

Washington CPA — Tacoma

CPA services for Tacoma, WA — remote, licensed, and current on the city B&O tax.

Tacoma is one of the few Washington cities layering its own B&O tax on top of the state's, and a lot of new business owners don't find out until the first notice arrives. We're a Washington State Licensed CPA practice that handles Tacoma's two-return reality every year, remotely, starting at $80.
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Washington State Licensed CPA. Verify our license →

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  • IRS Certifying Acceptance Agent (CAA)
  • Encrypted client portal & secure document handling
  • Remote-first — work with us from anywhere in the U.S.

Who it's for

Built for Tacoma.

Tacoma's economy runs on ports and bases, and that shapes who we work with here:

  • Port of Tacoma logistics and freight businesses navigating Tacoma's Service & Other/Retail Service B&O classification
  • JBLM-adjacent military contractors and small vendors needing clean books for government-contract compliance
  • Retailers and service businesses in downtown Tacoma or the Hilltop and 6th Ave corridors filing both state and city B&O for the first time
  • Business owners who inherited a Seattle-based accountant and want someone who treats Tacoma as more than an afterthought

Ready to talk about your Tacoma taxes?

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Why remote works here

Why Tacoma businesses choose an accountant who works remotely.

Tacoma businesses often get their tax handled by a Seattle-based firm as a secondary market, or by an accountant who quietly skips the separate Tacoma city return altogether. We built this page because Tacoma's city B&O tax is real, distinct from Seattle's, and worth getting right the first time rather than catching up on later.

As with every city page here, there's no Tacoma office to visit — we work through a secure portal and scheduled calls, the same as we do for Seattle or Everett. For a port and logistics economy where plenty of business owners are on the road or on a dock more than behind a desk, that's less of a compromise than it might sound. If you've been searching for an accountant in Tacoma who actually understands the city's own B&O return, that's exactly what this practice is built around.

The tax landscape

Tacoma’s city B&O tax, on top of the state tax

Tacoma is one of a small number of Washington cities that levies its own Business & Occupation tax in addition to the state B&O tax — a genuine layer of complexity a lot of general online guidance skips over. City rates run lower than Seattle's: 0.153% for retailing, 0.102% for wholesaling, 0.11% for manufacturing, and 0.4% for Service & Other Activities and Retail Service. Tacoma does exempt smaller businesses below a gross-receipts threshold; that threshold moves periodically, so rather than quote a figure we could not confirm from a single current primary source, we'll say this plainly: verify your current filing requirement with Tacoma's Tax & License division or with us.

One recent wrinkle worth knowing: effective January 1, 2026, Tacoma updated its classifications so that certain activities long taxed as Service & Other — including IT services, staffing, and advertising — now report under the lower Retailing classification instead, following a statewide model-ordinance update. If your business falls into one of those categories, your effective Tacoma city rate may have just dropped, and it is worth checking your classification rather than assuming last year’s return is still correct.

None of this replaces the state-level B&O tax, which still applies at 0.471% retailing, 0.484% wholesaling and manufacturing, and the tiered Service & Other rate (1.5% under $1 million, 1.75% to $5 million, 2.1% above) effective October 1, 2025. A Tacoma business genuinely can owe both returns — state and city — in the same quarter, which is exactly the kind of filing that gets missed by a preparer who only knows the state form.

Washington and city tax rates, classifications, and thresholds on this page reflect our research of official Washington Department of Revenue and city finance department sources as of August 2026. Several of these figures changed in 2025 and 2026 legislative and rate-setting cycles and can change again — confirm your exact rate and threshold with the Washington Department of Revenue, the relevant city finance office, or on a consultation before filing. This page is general information, not tax advice, and does not create a client relationship.

Client stories — coming soon.

IMAAR Associates CPA, PLLC is a newer practice, and we won't post reviews we don't have. As we build our public references, we're glad to walk you through our credentials, our process, and exactly how we'd handle your situation. Ask us anything on your consultation.

Related services

Tax Preparation Federal and Washington-relevant returns, prepared and reviewed by a CPA. Bookkeeping & CFO Accurate monthly books plus the fractional CFO guidance to act on them.

Tacoma tax questions, answered.

Yes. Tacoma is one of a handful of Washington cities — along with Seattle, Bellevue, and Vancouver — that levies a city Business & Occupation tax on top of the state B&O tax. Rates and thresholds differ from Seattle's, so a Seattle-focused accountant may not have your Tacoma filing set up correctly.

Possibly. Effective January 1, 2026, Tacoma reclassified several service-type activities — including IT services, staffing, and advertising — to report under the Retailing classification rather than Service & Other, following a statewide update. Worth confirming your current classification rather than assuming it is unchanged.

Yes. We regularly work with small government contractors and logistics or freight businesses on entity structure, quarterly estimates, and return preparation — the kind of complexity that comes with government-contract compliance or multi-state freight activity.

No — we're remote-first with no physical office in Tacoma or anywhere in Washington. Everything runs through a secure portal and scheduled calls.

Washington state B&O applies to every business in the state regardless of city. Tacoma’s city B&O is a separate, additional tax that only businesses operating within Tacoma city limits owe, at Tacoma’s own rates. Most Tacoma businesses file both.

Neither, exactly — we're not based in either city. We're a Washington-licensed CPA practice built to serve Tacoma properly, including its own city B&O return, rather than treating it as an extension of a Seattle client list.

Also serving nearby Washington cities

We work with clients across Washington, remotely. See how we serve Seattle, Bellevue, Everett, or see all Washington cities we serve.

Related reading: Washington B&O tax explained for small businesses.

Let's get your Tacoma taxes handled.

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What happens next

  1. 1

    Book a free consultation.

  2. 2

    We confirm what you need and a clear price.

  3. 3

    You decide whether to move forward — no pressure.

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