Maryland Legislature Overrides Veto of Digital Ad Tax

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Washington D.C. (February 12, 2021) - The Association of National Advertisers is extremely disappointed by the Maryland General Assembly’s decision to overturn Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of HB 732 (The Digital Advertising Gross Revenue Tax) today. As businesses struggle amid the challenging economic and health threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, now is clearly not the time to place severe burdens on businesses and consumers. 

“ANA believes this law will be found to be unconstitutional and violates the Internet Tax Fairness Act that bans discriminatory taxes on Internet digital communications. Enacting this law will slow job growth in Maryland, dampen consumer demand, discourage business investment, and ultimately cause consumers to pay far more for products and services. It will create a highly toxic marketplace for digital advertising and needs to be overturned in the courts,” said Dan Jaffe, Group Executive Vice President of Government Relations, ANA. 

We anticipate a successful challenge in the courts to this law, negating the legislature’s argument that this tax will provide funding for education. Rather, the state will face costly litigation against this unconstitutional decision that violates federal law. ANA believes that Maryland deserves far better than the highly negative commercial environment that this law would create, and we intend to continue to fight against this misguided bill. 

ABOUT THE ANA:

The mission of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Dan Jaffe
Group EVP, Government Relations, ANA
Phone: 646.369.4886
Email: djaffe@ana.net