How to Get a Wholesale License in Washington State: Fees and Filing

To sell wholesale in Washington State, you apply for the standard Washington Business License through the Department of Revenue and register wholesaling as a tax classification on that license. There is no separate wholesale license in Washington except in a handful of regulated industries. The application costs $50, runs through the Department of Revenue’s My DOR online portal, and takes about two weeks to process.

What Counts as a Wholesale Sale

Washington law defines a sale at wholesale broadly. It covers any sale of tangible personal property, prewritten software, digital goods, or certain services that is not a retail sale.¹ In practice, you’re wholesaling when you sell to another business that will resell the goods or build them into a product for resale. A clothing manufacturer selling to a boutique, a food distributor supplying restaurants, or a parts supplier selling components to an assembler are all making wholesale sales.

The classification matters because wholesale transactions are not subject to retail sales tax, but the seller owes Business and Occupation (B&O) tax at the wholesaling rate. If you can’t document that a sale was legitimately wholesale, the Department of Revenue can reclassify it as retail during an audit, meaning you’d owe both the higher retailing B&O rate and the retail sales tax you never collected.²

Industries That Do Require a Separate Wholesale License

A few industries carry their own wholesaling license on top of the standard business license.

Pharmaceutical wholesaling. Any business that distributes drugs into, out of, or within Washington must be licensed by the Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission before it begins operations. That includes in-state and out-of-state wholesalers, virtual wholesalers, outsourcing facilities, and reverse distributors.³
Wholesale fish dealing. A wholesale fish dealer’s license is required if your business commercially processes food fish or shellfish, or engages in wholesale buying, selling, or brokering of seafood. Businesses that buy exclusively from licensed wholesale dealers and sell only at retail are exempt.⁴

Alcohol, cannabis, and firearms wholesaling all involve additional agency oversight. The Department of Revenue’s Business Licensing Wizard flags most of these endorsements based on the activities you select during the application.

What to Have Ready Before You Apply

Pull the following together before starting the application:

Your business structure. Sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation, or partnership. If you’re forming an LLC, corporation, or limited partnership, register with the Washington Secretary of State first. The business license application won’t process correctly without that registration on file.
A Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). Most structures need one. Sole proprietors with no employees can use their Social Security Number, but the EIN is free from the IRS and keeps your SSN off business paperwork.
Business details. Legal name, any trade names, physical location, mailing address, and your start date.
Employee plans. The application asks whether you’ll hire within 90 days. Answering yes automatically registers you with the Department of Labor & Industries for workers’ compensation and the Employment Security Department for unemployment insurance. You can update the license later if you hire down the road.⁵

How to File the Application

The Department of Revenue handles business license applications through its My DOR online portal. Start with the Business Licensing Wizard, which asks about your activities and tells you which registrations, endorsements, and fees apply. From there you can file directly online.⁶

Mail is also an option. Download the Business License Application from the Department of Revenue’s website, complete it along with any required supplemental forms, and send everything with a check or money order to the Business Licensing Service at PO Box 9034, Olympia, WA 98507-9034.⁷ Online is much faster, and the My DOR account you create is the same one you’ll use later to file taxes and manage the license.

One application registers you with multiple agencies at once: the Department of Revenue for tax purposes, plus Labor & Industries and Employment Security if you’re hiring.

Fees

The processing fee for a new business license application is $50, nonrefundable.⁸ Tax registration itself carries no additional fee. Each trade name you register costs $5.⁷ State or city endorsements may add their own fees; the Business Licensing Wizard totals everything before you submit.

Later changes to an existing license (adding endorsements, a new trade name, or employees) carry a $10 processing fee.⁸

Processing Time and What You Receive

Online applications take roughly 10 business days. If your business needs city or state endorsements that require separate approval, add another two to three weeks.⁶ The Department of Revenue may contact you during that window if anything needs clarification.

Once approved, you receive your Washington Business License displaying your Unified Business Identifier (UBI), a nine-digit number that follows your business across every state agency and appears on tax filings, employment reports, and regulatory paperwork.⁹ Do not begin any activity that requires a specific endorsement until that endorsement appears on your printed license.¹⁰

Reseller Permits: How You Prove a Sale Was Wholesale

This is where new wholesalers most often trip up. In Washington, every sale is legally presumed to be a retail sale unless the seller can prove otherwise. You prove a sale is wholesale by collecting a valid reseller permit from your buyer.¹¹

The reseller permit is issued by the Department of Revenue to businesses that buy goods for resale. Your job as the wholesaler is to collect a copy of each customer’s permit and keep it on file. You have up to 120 days from the date of sale to get the documentation. If the buyer doesn’t produce a valid permit or an approved exemption certificate, you must collect retail sales tax on that transaction.²

Keep reseller permit records for five years after the date of each sale. The Department of Revenue recommends verifying customers’ permits electronically at least once a year through its free online verification tool. Sellers who verify annually don’t need a fresh copy of the permit for each transaction during the following 12 months.¹¹

B&O Tax at the Wholesaling Rate

Washington has no corporate income tax. Businesses pay B&O tax on gross receipts, not profits. The wholesaling B&O rate is 0.484 percent of total wholesale revenue.¹² For every $100,000 in wholesale sales, that’s $484 owed regardless of whether the sales were profitable.

If your business also makes retail sales, those are taxed at the retailing B&O rate, which is the same 0.484 percent, but with the added obligation to collect and remit retail sales tax. Classifying each transaction correctly keeps you off the wrong rate and out of surprise assessments during audits.

You report and pay B&O tax through the same My DOR account. Filing frequency — monthly, quarterly, or annually — depends on the tax you owe, and the Department of Revenue assigns your schedule after reviewing your application.

Renewing Your License

Most Washington business license endorsements renew annually. The Department of Revenue sends a renewal notice the month before your expiration date.¹³ The renewal processing fee is $5, plus any endorsement fees.⁸

Miss the renewal deadline and you’ll face a delinquency fee equal to the lesser of $150 or 50 percent of your renewal fee.¹⁴ LLCs and corporations also file a separate annual report with the Secretary of State to stay in good standing, which is a different filing on a different deadline than the business license renewal.¹³

City License Requirements

Many Washington cities require their own business license or endorsement. Some participate in the state’s unified system, so you can apply for the city endorsement at the same time you file your state business license application.¹⁵ For cities not in the state system, contact the city directly for its requirements and fees. If your wholesale business operates from a warehouse or office inside city limits, or if you travel to cities for deliveries or sales calls, check whether those cities require a license. Getting caught operating without one usually means back fees and penalties.

1
Washington State Legislature. RCW 82.04.060 – Sale at Wholesale, Wholesale Sale
2
Washington Department of Revenue. Reseller Permits
3
Legal Information Institute. Washington Administrative Code 246-945-246 – Wholesaler
4
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 77.65.280 – Wholesale Fish Dealers License, Fees, Exemption
5
Washington Department of Revenue. Hiring Employees
6
Washington Department of Revenue. Apply for a Business License
7
Washington State Department of Revenue. Business License Application
8
Washington Department of Revenue. Variable Business License Processing Fees
9
Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. What Is a UBI Number
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Washington State Department of Revenue. State Endorsement Fee Sheet
11
Legal Information Institute. Washington Administrative Code 458-20-102 – Reseller Permits
12
Washington Department of Revenue. Business and Occupation (B&O) Tax
13
Washington Department of Revenue. Get or Renew Your Business License
14
Washington State Legislature. RCW 19.02.085 – Licensing Fees, Business License Delinquency Fee
15
Washington Department of Revenue. City Endorsements