[bch]

Do you mean number of private workspaces that are called an “office” in a building affects how taxes are calculated? So reconfiguring the floors in a corporate building might affect how they file taxes? I’ve never heard of that before...

[filmgirlcw]

Yes. And it can be impacted at a municipality level, as well as a state or county level too. So the city of Seattle might have a different way they tax these things than the city of Redmond, in addition to whatever taxes are levied by King County or Washington State.

ETA: there are very real reasons big companies have reconfigured workspaces and it isn’t about worker efficiency studies or even fitting more people into a space, but about taxes.

[wolco2]

This isn't true. The move to the open office was NOT because of a city tax on the number of private offices. For this to be remotely true someone would need to audit each building / floor.

Could you point to a government website with additional information?

[filmgirlcw]

It’s not the only reason. It’s certainly a reason in certain areas. Research B&O tax laws and loopholes and the intricacies therein.

[eropple]

This is news to me. Could you provide some reading material on this topic?

[filmgirlcw]

Look up B&O taxes. There’s often a square footage requirement to it and depending on where you are, there can be a surcharge or additional fee for what they deem distinct workspaces. So if it has a door, that’s a new place. Whereas open and more disparate spaces do not. Again, all of this is extremely dependent on where you operate and can vary based on what type of business you’re in, etc. etc.

I wish I had more direct information. I was informed of this by a tax attorney, when I was complaining about how our shared employer was shifting away from individual offices, which had been a hallmark of the company and corporate culture. He told me that there had been some changes to the local B&O tax law that helped make the argument to to shared/team/open spaces. I did some research and found he was right, though again, the specifics are going to differ depending on where you are, what business you’re in, the size of the business, etc.

[bch]

I’m entertained that the euphemism “arranging deck chairs on the Titanic” is not actually useless, in this context.

[solidsnack9000]

I would be interested in reading more about this, as well, but am uncertain how to go about searching for it.