Manufacturing – definition

A manufacturer is anyone who makes products for sale or commercial or industrial use, using their own materials or ingredients, either by doing the work themselves or hiring others.

Manufacturer does not include:

• Producers of aluminum master alloys, even if part of the aluminum comes from their customer's supply.
• Non-residents of Washington who own materials that are being processed within the state.
• Owners of materials used to make a nuclear fuel assembly by a processor for hire.

To manufacture means to make things—either by hand or using machines—by working with raw materials to create a new, different, or useful product that can be sold or used commercially or industrially.

To manufacture includes, but is not limited to:

• The production or fabrication of specially made or custom-made articles.
• The production or fabrication of dental appliances, devices, restorations, substitutes, or other dental laboratory products by a dental laboratory or dental technician.
• Cutting, delimbing, and measuring of felled, cut, or taken trees.
• Crushing and/or blending of rock, sand, stone, gravel, or ore.
• Cleaning (removal of the head, fins, or viscera) of fish.
  • A manufacturing B&O tax exemption is available for cleaning fish if the cleaning activities are limited to removing the head, fins, or viscera from fresh fish without further processing other than freezing. However, the exemption does not apply to processors for hire.

To manufacture does not include:

• Conditioning of seed for use in planting.
• Cubing hay or alfalfa.
• Activities that consist of cutting, grading, or ice-glazing seafood that has been cooked, frozen, or canned outside this state.
• The growing, harvesting, or producing of agricultural products.
• Packing agricultural products, including sorting, washing, rinsing, grading, waxing, treating with fungicide, packaging, chilling, or placing in controlled atmospheric storage.