Incoming: The "Property" Question Challenging Washington's New Tax

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Do you own your own income? Is income even property? Or does income exist in some unattributed, unowned amorphous state before it transforms into money in your bank account? To the federal Internal Revenue Service, “income” is used exclusively as a noun: it’s the thing you receive. (Section 61 and throughout the IRS guidance.) But in Washington State, is it different?

A question from 1933 is back.

While the Washington State Supreme Court has already ruled on and affirmed in subsequent cases over nearly a century that income is property, the court is very likely to take up this question again and rule on it anew. And what it decides will have ramifications for our state, and in time, and for an income tax which may eventually impact far more Washingtonians than just millionaires.

Voters have a new tool to see how candidates might rule on this consequential question. And it may be the first of its kind for an election, using AI to try to read the tea-leaves on how judges might rule.

https://www.postalley.org/2026/05/21/incoming-the-property-question-challenging-washingtons-new-tax/