IA Helps Beat Off Measurement Tax in Nebraska

Legislation in the US state of Nebraska which would have taxed 'advertising', explicitly including ad measurement and effectiveness research, has been pulled from the slate before a vote, according to the Insights Association, which was part of a coalition opposing it.

L.B.388, was part of a raft of tax reforms put forward by the state governor and was due for a final floor vote last Thursday, April 18th, but was withdrawn before the vote could take place. The bill was derived from an earlier effort, L.B.1354, which also 'died' in the legislature. The proposed new ruling, which would have placed a 7.5% tax on revenue from 'advertising services' specifically included in this definition 'the monitoring and evaluation of website traffic for purposes of determining the effectiveness of an advertising campaign'.

Howard Fienberg, Senior VP Advocacy for the trade association comments: 'This legislation would have increased costs for ad measurement and research in Nebraska and disincentivized informed decision-making. The tax could have fallen not only on larger insights firms conducting audience measurement, but also on audience measurement work conducted by smaller insights firms for large advertising companies, and on big advertising companies' insights departments. The result would have been unnecessarily wasted resources and higher costs for businesses and consumers'.

Web site: www.insightsassociation.org .