Digital Economy

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The Maryland Comptroller of Public Accounts issued guidance interpreting 2020 H.B. 932, entitled the 21st-Century Economy Fairness Act. Effective March 14, 2021, the act expanded the sales and use tax to sales and uses of digital products. Pursuant to its guidance, the Comptroller will apply tax to a variety of digital products – including e-books,…

Immediately before last Friday’s deadline for the filing of unrestricted bills, Texas lawmakers introduced a digital advertising tax bill and a bill that would expand sales tax to a wide array of services.

H.B. 4467, filed on March 12 by Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-TX-116) would impose a tax on gross revenue from digital…

A pair of recently-introduced Maryland bills would create a whistleblower program within the Maryland Comptroller’s office and possibly result in a headache for many taxpayers. The proposed whistleblower bills appear to be modeled after the IRS’ whistleblower program, although they contain a noticeably low materiality threshold and allow for the anonymous reporting of complaints.

The…

Earlier today, the Maryland Senate passed S.B. 787, Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax and Tobacco Tax – Alterations and Implementation, on third reading (46-0). As amended, S.B. 787 makes the following relevant changes to the digital advertising tax:

  1. Exempts advertisement services on digital interfaces owned or operated by or operated on behalf of

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On February 22, 2021, the Georgia House of Representatives introduced H.B. 594, which would impose the Georgia sales tax on digital goods or services. The bill amends the definition of tangible personal property, subject to sales tax, to include “digital goods or services.” It defines digital goods or services to include: (1) specified digital…

On February 19, 2021, the New York Senate introduced S4959, which would impose a monthly excise tax on the collection of the consumer data of individual New York consumers by commercial data collectors. The tax rate varies based on the number of New York consumers the commercial data collector collects data on within the…

The Massachusetts Legislature has recently introduced a variety of bills that would tax digital advertising. Notably, HD.3210 would establish the Digital Advertising Local Revenues Tax, which would be imposed on the annual gross revenues of a person derived from digital advertising services in Massachusetts. “Digital advertising services” is defined as including “advertisement services on…

Earlier today, in a last minute addition to the Maryland Senate’s Budget and Taxation Committee hearing, the committee voted to approve amendments to S.B. 787, Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax – Exemption and Restriction. Most notably, the amendments would delay the start of the digital advertising tax to January 1, 2022.

The other relevant…

On February 12, 2021, the Maryland General Assembly voted to override Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of House Bill 932, which subjects digital products (both downloads and streaming) to the state’s sales and use tax.

As the Maryland Senate voted 29-17 and the Maryland House of Delegates voted 90-44, the bill received the required three-fifths…