For Flexcar, no way around new tax. A new Washington state tax on car rentals goes into effect October 1st, and the tax collector is considering car sharing programs as rental car companies for the purpose of this tax. That means Washington state residents that use car sharing programs will be paying an additional 9.7% on top of the 9% sales tax starting October 1st, which for me is an additional $40 a month.

I won't go into detail on why we prefer paying $400 a month for car sharing to owning a car, but it's easy to imagine how another 9.7% could throw the equation out of whack for many FlexCar users. It could mean more cars on the road as members defect to an ownership lifestyle. It could also threaten the existence of the program, which could in turn mean even more cars on the road. Car sharing needs to be exempt from this new tax to survive.