Battle Over Taxing Digital Ads Goes Before Maryland Justices

Maryland’s first-in-the-nation levy on digital advertising is slated for argument Friday before the state’s Supreme Court, which will consider whether it is a legal way to tax tech giants’ activity within state borders.

Maryland had in mind the Facebooks, Googles, and Amazons of the world when it enacted a tax of between 2.5% and 10% on the gross revenue from digital ads earned by companies with annual revenue above $100 million. The state wants the high court to overturn a trial court’s sparse October ruling that the novel levy violates the dormant commerce clause, the First Amendment, and the supremacy ...