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A Maryland state tax court has struck down the state's first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising and ordered state officials to repay the tax money already collected from big tech firms. The Maryland Tax Court said the tax violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act as well as the First Amendment and the commerce and due process clauses of the US Constitution. The legal fight has been watched by other states that are considering taxes for online advertisements. Maryland estimated the tax, approved in 2021, could raise about USD 250 million a year to help pay for a sweeping K-12 education measure. In Friday's decision, the tax court ordered the state to repay the tax money already collected by Apple, Google and Peacock TV. The law taxed revenue that large companies make on digital advertisements shown in Maryland. Companies making more than USD 100 million in global annual gross revenues were taxed at a 2.5 per cent rate. The rate increased for companies with larger revenues,
A Washington, DC, federal court on Tuesday rejected a request from an immigrant rights group to temporarily block the IRS from sharing certain taxpayer data that could make it easier to identify and deport people who are in the US illegally. A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit declined to issue a preliminary injunction for the immigrants' rights group, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, and other nonprofits that are suing the federal government over the data-sharing agreement signed last April by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The agreement allows US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the US illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records. In declining the preliminary injunction request, Judge Harry T Edwards wrote that the nonprofit groups "are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claim," since the information the agencies are sharing .