The Illinois Association of REALTORS® has joined a coalition of groups worried about a proposal to tax business advertising.
According to information from the No Ad Tax Coalition, the proposal listed in Gov. Rauner’s “Bring Back Blueprint” will impose a near 10 percent tax on the marketing efforts of Illinois small businesses, including restaurants, dry cleaners, beauty salons, florists, local grocery stores, local hardware stores and real estate companies. The tax will be applied to ads placed in newspapers, on billboards, radio and television. It will take millions of dollars out of the pockets of those who rely on advertising to communicate with their customers.
This would be of particular concern to IAR’s 43,000 members since many use advertising to market properties and their services.
According to the coalition, a similar ad tax was repealed after just six months in Florida because of the negative impacts it had on:
- Personal income ($2.5 billion lost);
- Jobs (50,000 lost);
- Ad purchases (12 percent less); and
- Ad revenue ($100 million).
The No Ad Tax Coalition is a diverse group of independent small businesses, associations and organizations in Illinois that have joined together to protect our state’s small business community.