Maryland Digital Ad Tax Voided, Refunds Ordered for Big Tech
A Maryland tax court struck down the state's pioneering digital ad tax, ordering refunds to Apple, Google, and Peacock TV.
Maryland's bold experiment with taxing digital advertising is dead. The Maryland Tax Court just killed the nation's first-ever digital ad tax — and told state officials to cut refund checks to Apple, Google, Peacock TV, and every other big tech firm that paid into it.
The court didn't pull punches on the reasoning either. It ruled the tax violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act *and* the First Amendment, *plus* both the commerce and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. That's a four-count takedown. When a tax fails that many constitutional tests at once, it's not coming back easy.
Read more South Korea Hands Crypto Scammer 15-Year Sentence for $50M Fraud →
Maryland had counted on this levy hard. State officials projected the tax — signed into law in 2021 — would generate roughly $250 million annually. That money was earmarked to fund a sweeping K-12 education overhaul. Now that revenue stream is gone, and the state faces the added sting of having to return what it already collected.
For traders and investors watching the ad-tech space, this is a clean win for platforms that run digital advertising at scale. Any time a state-level revenue grab targeting a specific digital business model gets invalidated on this many grounds, it signals rough going for copycat legislation elsewhere. Other states eyeing similar taxes now have a stacked legal precedent working against them.
Continue reading at Yahoo.
