According to U.S. media reports, on February 18th, local time, Maryland filed the first bill in the United States to tax digital advertising of large technology companies such as Facebook and Google, which was rejected by the district court for “punitive disposal” of digital advertising.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore City will tax companies with more than $100 million in global revenue for digital advertising in Maryland, and a ladder tax on the company’s total annual global revenue.
The claim of this bill has been found to violate many federal laws, such as the Federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, which prohibits discrimination against electronic commerce.
Proponents of the bill believe that the new law aims to modernize the tax system in Maryland and urge these thriving technology companies to pay the tax they should pay. According to relevant data, if the bill is passed, the local government will receive $250 million a year in revenue to improve public facilities such as the local education system.
Bill Ferguson, President of the Maryland Senate, has been a supporter of the bill since last year. He did not think the lawsuit was surprising. But he said, “It’s disappointing to see these companies spend millions on senior lawyers instead of paying the tax they should pay.
For 20 years, these companies have used privileges in the states to expand their business exponentially, benefiting from the personal information of residents collected at zero cost, but without any return for local residents or infrastructure.”
The U.S. Attorney General’s Office of Maryland declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
