The Kitsap County Treasurer collects the property tax levied by the City of Poulsbo and remits it to the City on a monthly basis. The property tax is recorded in the City's General Fund. City Council has set a policy that based on a 1% increase over the previous year, not including the banked reserve, 36% of the property tax collected by the City will be transferred to the Street Fund to support operations and maintenance of the City's streets and 5% is transferred to the Park Reserve Fund for capital park projects. In 2009 the 5% transfer to Street Reserves has been eliminated leaving the dollars in the General Fund. When the City Council decided to levy the portion of property taxes previously banked because of the Fire Department annexation to the County, they directed the difference to be reserved for the capital construction of new or maintenance street projects. This is equates to about $290,000 transferred to the Street Reserve Fund in 2009.

The State of Washington collects the 8.6% sales tax paid to vendors doing business within Poulsbo city limits and distributes the City's portion (1%) back to the City on a monthly basis. The sales tax is recorded in the City's General Fund. A separate fund is used for replacement and purchase of new capital equipment with a value of $5,000 or greater, as well as computer equipment. In 2009 the City Council decreased planned expenditures in this fund and decreased the tranfer to only fund these reduced expenditures. The City Council also reduced the 3% of sales tax transfer to build the reserves in Revenue Stabilization Fund. The remaining dollars will stay in the General Fund. These reductions are reflective of a changing economy and using a heavy reserve balance before cutting services. The City Council has a stringent practice of monitoring revenues and expenditures. They will be evaluating budget to actuals consistently under this policy to pro-actively react to any non-anticipated changes in the City's revenue and expenditures. The policy of the City Council is to not project revenue's higher than actual dollars received in the prior year. Due to the decrease in sales tax activity, the City Council recommended a 7.5% reduction to this projection.

	Click here to see the current Sales Tax Report
	Click here to see Sales Tax by Zone Report

Utility Taxes are taxes applied to utilities providing services in the City including City-owned and privately owned utilities. On the whole, these taxes tend to be stable from year to year.

The following are the different types of utility tax the City collects at a rate
of 6%:

• Electric Tax
• Natural Gas Tax
• Telephone Tax
• Water Utility Tax
• Sewer Utility Tax
• Solid Waste Utility Tax
• Storm Drain Utility Tax

Click here to view the Poulsbo Municipal Code
Click here to download the Utility Tax Remittance Form (PDF) MISSING

The remaining taxes are composed of various miscellaneous taxes that include admissions, excise, leasehold, and gambling taxes.

The largest of these, admission tax, is a 5% tax on qualifying admission charges, which the City began collecting in 1999. A 10-plex theatre in the City provides the majority of this tax revenue.

Leasehold taxes are taxes paid to Washington State on government owned land that is being leased or rented. A portion of the tax on these types of properties is disbursed to the City.

Excise tax revenue is a tax on the City's solid waste activities. The tax is charged by Washington State's Department of Revenue.

Gambling taxes are irregular in a community the size of Poulsbo. They tend to be an unstable source and their receipts are, therefore, forecast conservatively.