"Consumer" means the following:

(1) Except as provided otherwise in this section, any person who purchases, acquires, owns, holds, or uses any article of tangible personal property irrespective of the nature of the person's business and including, among others, without limiting the scope hereof, persons who install, repair, clean, alter, improve, construct, or decorate real or personal property of or for consumers other than for the purpose of:

(a) Resale as tangible personal property in the regular course of business;

(b) Incorporating such property as an ingredient or component of real or personal property when installing, repairing, cleaning, altering, imprinting, improving, constructing, or decorating such real or personal property of or for consumers;

(c) Consuming such property in producing for sale as a new article of tangible personal property or a new substance, of which such property becomes an ingredient or component or as a chemical used in processing, when the primary purpose of such chemical is to create a chemical reaction directly through contact with an ingredient of a new article being produced for sale;

(d) Consuming the property purchased in producing ferrosilicon which is subsequently used in producing magnesium for sale, if the primary purpose of such property is to create a chemical reaction directly through contact with an ingredient of ferrosilicon; or

(e) Satisfying the person's obligations under an extended warranty as defined in RCW 82.04.050(7), if such tangible personal property replaces or becomes an ingredient or component of property covered by the extended warranty without intervening use by such person;

(2)(a) Any person engaged in any business activity taxable under RCW 82.04.290 or 82.04.2908; (b) any person who purchases, acquires, or uses any competitive telephone service, ancillary services, or telecommunications service as those terms are defined in RCW 82.04.065, other than for resale in the regular course of business; (c) any person who purchases, acquires, or uses any service defined in RCW 82.04.050(2) (a) or (g), other than for resale in the regular course of business or for the purpose of satisfying the person's obligations under an extended warranty as defined in RCW 82.04.050(7); (d) any person who makes a purchase meeting the definition of "sale at retail" and "retail sale" under RCW 82.04.050(15), other than for resale in the regular course of business; (e) any person who purchases or acquires an extended warranty as defined in RCW 82.04.050(7) other than for resale in the regular course of business; and (f) any person who is an end user of software. For purposes of this subsection (2)(f) and RCW 82.04.050(6), a person who purchases or otherwise acquires prewritten computer software, who provides services described in RCW 82.04.050(6)(c) and who will charge consumers for the right to access and use the prewritten computer software, is not an end user of the prewritten computer software;

(3) Any person engaged in the business of contracting for the building, repairing or improving of any street, place, road, highway, easement, right-of-way, mass public transportation terminal or parking facility, bridge, tunnel, or trestle which is owned by a municipal corporation or political subdivision of the state of Washington or by the United States and which is used or to be used primarily for foot or vehicular traffic including mass transportation vehicles of any kind as defined in RCW 82.04.280, in respect to tangible personal property when such person incorporates such property as an ingredient or component of such publicly owned street, place, road, highway, easement, right-of-way, mass public transportation terminal or parking facility, bridge, tunnel, or trestle by installing, placing or spreading the property in or upon the right-of-way of such street, place, road, highway, easement, bridge, tunnel, or trestle or in or upon the site of such mass public transportation terminal or parking facility;

(4) Any person who is an owner, lessee or has the right of possession to or an easement in real property which is being constructed, repaired, decorated, improved, or otherwise altered by a person engaged in business, excluding only (a) municipal corporations or political subdivisions of the state in respect to labor and services rendered to their real property which is used or held for public road purposes, and (b) the United States, instrumentalities thereof, and county and city housing authorities created pursuant to chapter 35.82 RCW in respect to labor and services rendered to their real property. Nothing contained in this or any other subsection of this definition may be construed to modify any other definition of "consumer";

(5) Any person who is an owner, lessee, or has the right of possession to personal property which is being constructed, repaired, improved, cleaned, imprinted, or otherwise altered by a person engaged in business;

(6) Any person engaged in the business of constructing, repairing, decorating, or improving new or existing buildings or other structures under, upon, or above real property of or for the United States, any instrumentality thereof, or a county or city housing authority created pursuant to chapter 35.82 RCW, including the installing or attaching of any article of tangible personal property therein or thereto, whether or not such personal property becomes a part of the realty by virtue of installation; also, any person engaged in the business of clearing land and moving earth of or for the United States, any instrumentality thereof, or a county or city housing authority created pursuant to chapter 35.82 RCW. Any such person is a consumer within the meaning of this subsection in respect to tangible personal property incorporated into, installed in, or attached to such building or other structure by such person, except that consumer does not include any person engaged in the business of constructing, repairing, decorating, or improving new or existing buildings or other structures under, upon, or above real property of or for the United States, or any instrumentality thereof, if the investment project would qualify for sales and use tax deferral under chapter 82.63 RCW if undertaken by a private entity;

(7) Any person who is a lessor of machinery and equipment, the rental of which is exempt from the tax imposed by RCW 82.08.020 under RCW 82.08.02565, with respect to the sale of or charge made for tangible personal property consumed in respect to repairing the machinery and equipment, if the tangible personal property has a useful life of less than one year. Nothing contained in this or any other subsection of this section may be construed to modify any other definition of "consumer";

(8) Any person engaged in the business of cleaning up for the United States, or its instrumentalities, radioactive waste and other by-products of weapons production and nuclear research and development;

(9) Any person who is an owner, lessee, or has the right of possession of tangible personal property that, under the terms of an extended warranty as defined in RCW 82.04.050(7), has been repaired or is replacement property, but only with respect to the sale of or charge made for the repairing of the tangible personal property or the replacement property;

(10) Any person who purchases, acquires, or uses services described in RCW 82.04.050(6)(c) other than:

(a) For resale in the regular course of business; or

(b) For purposes of consuming the service described in RCW 82.04.050(6)(c) in producing for sale a new product, but only if such service becomes a component of the new product. For purposes of this subsection (10), "product" means a digital product, an article of tangible personal property, or the service described in RCW 82.04.050(6)(c);

(11)(a) Any end user of a digital product or digital code. "Consumer" does not include any person who is not an end user of a digital product or a digital code and purchases, acquires, owns, holds, or uses any digital product or digital code for purposes of consuming the digital product or digital code in producing for sale a new product, but only if the digital product or digital code becomes a component of the new product. A digital code becomes a component of a new product if the digital good or digital automated service acquired through the use of the digital code becomes incorporated into a new product. For purposes of this subsection, "product" has the same meaning as in subsection (10) of this section.

(b)(i) For purposes of this subsection, "end user" means any taxpayer as defined in RCW 82.12.010 other than a taxpayer who receives by contract a digital product for further commercial broadcast, rebroadcast, transmission, retransmission, licensing, relicensing, distribution, redistribution or exhibition of the product, in whole or in part, to others. A person that purchases digital products or digital codes for the purpose of giving away such products or codes will not be considered to have engaged in the distribution or redistribution of such products or codes and will be treated as an end user;

(ii) If a purchaser of a digital code does not receive the contractual right to further redistribute, after the digital code is redeemed, the underlying digital product to which the digital code relates, then the purchaser of the digital code is an end user. If the purchaser of the digital code receives the contractual right to further redistribute, after the digital code is redeemed, the underlying digital product to which the digital code relates, then the purchaser of the digital code is not an end user. A purchaser of a digital code who has the contractual right to further redistribute the digital code is an end user if that purchaser does not have the right to further redistribute, after the digital code is redeemed, the underlying digital product to which the digital code relates;

(12) Any person who provides services described in RCW 82.04.050(9). Any such person is a consumer with respect to the purchase, acquisition, or use of the tangible personal property that the person provides along with an operator in rendering services defined as a retail sale in RCW 82.04.050(9). Any such person may also be a consumer under other provisions of this section;

(13) Any person who purchases, acquires, owns, holds, or uses chemical sprays or washes for the purpose of postharvest treatment of fruit for the prevention of scald, fungus, mold, or decay, or who purchases feed, seed, seedlings, fertilizer, agents for enhanced pollination including insects such as bees, and spray materials, is not a consumer of such items, but only to the extent that the items:

(a) Are used in relation to the person's participation in the federal conservation reserve program, the environmental quality incentives program, the wetlands reserve program, the wildlife habitat incentives program, or their successors administered by the United States department of agriculture;

(b) Are for use by a farmer for the purpose of producing for sale any agricultural product; or

(c) Are for use by a farmer to produce or improve wildlife habitat on land the farmer owns or leases while acting under cooperative habitat development or access contracts with an organization exempt from federal income tax under 26 U.S.C. Sec. 501(c)(3) of the federal internal revenue code or the Washington state department of fish and wildlife;

(14) A regional transit authority is not a consumer with respect to labor, services, or tangible personal property purchased pursuant to agreements providing maintenance services for bus, rail, or rail fixed guideway equipment when a transit agency, as defined in RCW 81.104.015, performs the labor or services; and

(15) The term "consumer" does not include:

(a) An animal rescue organization with respect to animals under its care and control; and

(b) Any person with respect to an animal adopted by that person from an animal rescue organization.

Application—2017 c 323 ss 201 and 202: See note following RCW 82.04.040.

Tax preference performance statement exemption—Automatic expiration date exemption—2017 c 323: See note following RCW 82.04.040.

Effective date—2015 c 169: See note following RCW 82.04.050.

Purpose—Retroactive application—Effective date—2010 c 111: See notes following RCW 82.04.050.

Effective date—2010 c 106: See note following RCW 35.102.145.

Intent—Construction—2009 c 535: See notes following RCW 82.04.192.

Part headings not law—Savings—Effective date—Severability—2007 c 6: See notes following RCW 82.32.020.

Findings—Intent—2007 c 6: See note following RCW 82.14.390.

Effective date—2005 c 514: See note following RCW 83.100.230.

Part headings not law—Severability—2005 c 514: See notes following RCW 82.12.808.

Effective date—2004 c 174: See note following RCW 82.04.2908.

Severability—Effective date—2002 c 367: See notes following RCW 82.04.060.

Findings—Intent—Effective date—1998 c 332: See notes following RCW 82.04.29001.

Effective dates—1998 c 308: See note following RCW 82.04.050.

Findings—Intent—1996 c 173: See note following RCW 82.08.02565.

Severability—Effective date—1996 c 148: See notes following RCW 82.04.050.

Effective date—1996 c 112: See note following RCW 82.04.050.

Findings—Effective date—1995 1st sp.s. c 3: See notes following RCW 82.08.02565.

Construction—Severability—Effective dates—1983 2nd ex.s. c 3: See notes following RCW 82.04.255.

Application to preexisting contracts—1975 1st ex.s. c 90:See note following RCW 82.12.010.

Effective date—1975 1st ex.s. c 90: See note following RCW 82.04.050.

Effective dates—Severability—1971 ex.s. c 299: See notes following RCW 82.04.050.

Construction—Severability—1969 ex.s. c 255: See notes following RCW 35.58.272.