Peacock Attacks Last Minute Bulletin at Maryland Ad Tax Trial

A bulletin defining terms in Maryland’s contentious digital advertising tax is a “thinly veiled attempt to get deference” at the eleventh hour, Peacock TV LLC told a state judge in closing arguments Thursday.

No one knew the July 11 technical bulletin from Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman’s office was coming ahead of the evidentiary hearings that had been scheduled for months, Peacock attorney Jeffrey Friedman of Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP told the Maryland Tax Court. “It’s not fair, and it’s not how this works,” he said.

The bulletin requires digital advertising covered by the state’s first-in-the-nation tax to be both “programmatic” ...