Good News on Ohio Ad Tax Front | ANA Government Relations | ANA

Good News on Ohio Ad Tax Front

The House Finance Committee in the Ohio Legislature yesterday concluded three days of hearings on Governor Kasich’s budget and sales tax plan. Shortly thereafter, the Chairman of the Committee stated that the sales tax plan was likely to be eliminated or at least drastically alternated. Here is the story from the Columbus Dispatch.

On Tuesday, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce came out in opposition to the sales tax bill. Jim Davidson, the head lobbyist for The Advertising Coalition (TAC), our D.C. group that opposes ad taxes at the federal level, testified before the Finance Committee in Columbus yesterday and explained why imposing a sales tax on advertising was bad tax policy.

The Ohio Legislature is now beginning a two-week recess and the leadership plans to have a new budget plan developed by April 8.

ANA has been working with our members and local industry groups in Ohio to oppose this new tax. We helped form the Ohio Advertising Tax Coalition, which has a great website (www.noadtax.com) and has been holding grass roots meetings with all of the members of the Ohio House. They will continue those contacts during the recess period.

While this is very good news, it is still important to continue making contacts to reinforce why taxing advertising is a bad idea.

We alerted you last week that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s budget proposal would impose the sales tax on advertising agency services, but not on media buys. We are working with members and industry groups in Louisiana to create a similar coalition there to oppose this idea.
 
If you have any questions or additional information about the tax situation in Ohio, Louisiana or any other state, please contact Dan Jaffe (djaffe@ana.net) in ANA’s Washington, D.C. office at 202.296.1883.