Skip to main content
Day camps offer youth a variety of supervised indoor and outdoor activities within a safe environment. The camps can be booked by the day, week, or month depending on the organization.
Are day camps subject to sales tax?
It depends. Day camps provided at an athletic or fitness facility are considered a retail activity subject to retail sales tax. The income the athletic or fitness facility receives is also subject to business and occupation (B&O) tax under the retailing classification.
Day camps that are not held at an athletic or fitness facility are not retail sales. As such, camp providers should not charge customers retail sales tax on the cost of attending the camp. The income the day camp provider receives is subject to the B&O tax under the service and other activities classification.
Retail sales tax due on purchases
Camp providers are the consumers of all items used or consumed by the campers. Therefore, they must pay retail sales or use tax on their purchases of such items.
Assuming there is no additional charge for meals, the camp provider is the consumer of the meals. The camp provider must pay retail sales tax on the purchases of any prepared food items or food items that are not exempt from retail sales tax.
References
RCW 82.04.050 - "Sale at retail," "retail sale."
RCW 82.04.290 - Tax on service and other activities.
