Does anyone who has read (and understood) the sales-tax tax-break for 2004/5, care to explain it to me using words with one or two syllables? My understanding is this:

– you can use their tables to estimate your sales tax expenditure and claim that back; OR
– you can save every single receipt for the year and tally that up to claim that back; BUT
– if you bought a large ticket item (we’re talking boat, plane, etc) you can definitely claim that back (in addition to one of the above 2 choices)

Surely it’s not that simple. What’s the catch? (I mean, I know what the catch is for other states — it’s having to choose between your sales tax and your state income tax. What’s the catch for Washington though?) What if you only save half your receipts? Can you still claim just that amount if it exceeds the amount in the table?

PS: Rather simpler to understand, on a recent trip to the optometrist, they sold me my glasses sales-tax free — apparently something new that happened in 2004.