DC Rejects New Tax on Data

The City Council of Washington, DC voted last week to reject a proposal which would have placed a three percent tax on the sale of data. The decision followed interventions by the Insights Association and a coalition of other firms and associations.

The Council had already found alternative sources for the projected revenue, in a vote a week earlier, and has now followed up by completely deleting the Advertising and Personal Information Tax Amendment Act of 2020, part of the District's FY21 budget. The amendment would have levied a 3 percent tax on the sale of personal information, for which the IA says it used a definition 'so broad as to likely include the sale of any data, not just data traditionally understood to be personally identifiable'.

Welcoming the news, the IA said the proposed tax would have 'created a substantial barrier for economic recovery and job creation in the District', as large and small 'business and media entities' struggle to recover from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic'.

According to the IA's VP Advocacy Howard Fienberg, 'The new tax on data sales would have increased the cost of planning and decision-making, disincentivizing the marketing research and data analytics essential to economic recovery and the return of lost jobs to the District of Columbia'.

More information is at www.insightsassociation.org/article/dc-rejects-new-tax-data .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.