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On August 14, the Tax Court ordered refunds, with applicable interest, to Apple, Google, and Peacock TV. In each case, the court found that Maryland’s digital advertising tax violated the Internet Tax Freedom Act, the dormant Commerce Clause, and the Due Process Clause.

The court’s analysis may have implications beyond Maryland. It concluded that digital and nondigital advertising are sufficiently similar for purposes of the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Because Maryland generally does not impose a statewide tax on comparable nondigital advertising, the court held that the digital advertising tax was preempted by federal law.

The decisions also found constitutional problems with the tax’s use of worldwide revenue to establish the $100 million applicability threshold and determine the tax rate. In the Peacock TV decision, the court separately held that the statutory exemptions for certain broadcast entities and news media entities violated the First Amendment.

An artificial intelligence agent does not need a desk, a company badge, or a W-2 to change a taxpayer’s state tax profile. It may answer customer questions, negotiate terms, approve transactions, monitor equipment, issue refunds, arrange delivery, or transmit a software fix. Each task can occur in seconds and at national scale. The state tax question, however, is not whether the agent is a person. It is whether the business, through the agent, is conducting an activity that a state may tax.

That distinction matters. The Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. rejected a physical-presence requirement for sales tax nexus and recognized that an Internet seller can be present in a state in a meaningful way without traditional physical presence.[1] Although Wayfair addressed sales tax, its practical message has influenced the broader state tax conversation: a business cannot assume that activity is outside a state simply because its employees and headquarters are elsewhere.

As organizations begin developing their 2027 budgets and strategic plans, tax credits and incentives should be part of the conversation from the start. Hiring, expansion, technology, research, training, and energy projects may qualify for valuable federal, state, or local programs but timing is critical. Some incentives require applications or approvals before a project begins. Reviewing planned initiatives now can help your organization preserve eligibility, improve projected returns, and avoid missing important opportunities.What Is on Your 2027 Roadmap?

Understanding the two sides of “Property Tax Relief.” The annual property tax cycle is often discussed as though it were one continuous process. It is not. During the first part of the cycle, appraisal officials determine property values, taxpayers review those values, and appraisal disputes are resolved. During the second part, cities, counties, school districts, and other local taxing units adopt budgets and set the tax rates necessary to fund them. Those two stages answer different questions. The appraisal process asks: What portion of the tax base should be assigned to each property? The budget and tax-rate process asks: How much property tax should the local government collect? That distinction is important, particularly at this point in the year, when much of the appraisal cycle is winding down and attention is shifting to local budgets and tax rates.