(The Center Square) – Businessman Marc Barros says he has left Washington and is taking his Seattle-based company with him because taxes have become too burdensome.
Barros posted on X that it’s not even about the millionaire tax passed by the Washington State legislature last week, which places a 9.9% income tax on household incomes of more than than $1 million.
“I’m not even a millionaire affected by this tax. But when you add up all the costs to run a business in WA we can’t afford it,” he said. “You can build a remote team and re-open in Wyoming, removing all of these costs.
Barros did not say in the post when he moved out of state, but said his photography equipment business company, called Movement, is moving this month.
Barros did not respond to an email seeking comment.
It’s unclear how many employees work for Moment, but LinkedIn lists eight in Washington State and six in Seattle.
Among the taxes Barros cites are the city sales tax of 10.5%, city property taxes, state capital gains and estate taxes and state and city business and occupation taxes.
He also said that removing the state sales tax exemption on digital advertising, which started this year, has become very expensive for his company.
His business is even being taxed for ads it is running in Germany, he said.
“Overnight that is a+$200K a year tax that did not exist last year,” he said. “Again (its) not even based in where your ads run or where your team is. Incorporated in WA state? You will pay this tax.”
While there’s no evidence yet that millionaires and businesses are planning to flee the state in large numbers, Barros’ post highlights concerns from some in the business community that there will be an exodus of millionaires, billionaires and their companies from Washington.
Seattle attorney Joe Wallin said the new income tax, scheduled to go into effect in 2029, will definitely cause some businesses to leave.
But Wallin said even if companies want to leave, it will not always be practical given their investments in office, manufacturing and warehouse space in the area.
“They will have to do a cost-benefit analysis,” he said.
Wallin, who represents startup businesses in his practice, opposed the income tax bill and testified against it before the legislature.
He said some of the bill’s effects will be invisible because new companies won’t come to Seattle or the state of Washington in the first place.
In some cases, major companies are keeping employees in Washington but moving them from Seattle to Bellevue.
The office vacancy rate reached more than 30% in the last three months of 2025, a record high, the head of the Downtown Seattle Association President and CEO Jon Scholes said last week.
He said that was directly attributable to an increase in local taxes on businesses.
Scholes said that Amazon has relocated thousands of employees to Bellevue and other King County locations over the last several years due to the city’s increasingly aggressive tax burden.
