Illinois families and businesses already face one of the highest combined state and local tax burdens in the nation. Yet Illinois Democrats added hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes and fees to the Fiscal Year 2027 state budget—a key reason why I voted no on the budget bills. Now three of those new tax measures are being challenged in court.
The Digital Asset Tax imposes a new tax on qualifying digital asset business activity involving Illinois customers. The Digital Chamber has sued, arguing that the tax unlawfully treats those transactions differently. NetChoice has filed separate lawsuits challenging the Digital Ad Tax and Social Media Platform Fee. The courts have not yet ruled on these claims.
Illinois Democrats included $260 million in expected new revenue from the Digital Asset Tax and Social Media Platform Fee in the FY27 budget. But they left revenue from the Digital Ad Tax out of the budget projections because they fully expected legal problems with this new tax. If there was enough doubt about that tax to leave its revenue out of the budget, why pass it in the first place? We are taxed enough in Illinois already!
Illinois should be focused on making life more affordable and helping employers grow. Adding new taxes, especially while spending taxpayer money in court over potential illegality of taxation, moves us in the wrong direction.