Missouri Amendment 5 ad on data center taxation scrutinized for truthfulness
The video examines the accuracy of a political ad claiming Missouri's Amendment 5 will tax data centers. It clarifies that current law grants data centers tax exemptions and the amendment's text doesn't explicitly mention taxing them. While the ad refers to taxing the "digital economy," the amendment could enable future taxation of services like AI subscriptions.
A political advertisement by the group Missouri Promise has drawn viewer questions regarding its claim that Missouri's Amendment 5 would force "big tech" and data centers to pay more taxes. Viewers Barbara and Ruth specifically inquired if the commercial was truthful and if data centers were explicitly mentioned in the amendment's text.
An investigation revealed that a Missouri law passed in 2015 provides state and local sales and use tax exemptions for data centers, a policy supported by the current governor. Furthermore, the legislation behind Amendment 5, sponsored by State Representative Bishop Davidson, does not specifically mention data centers. Representative Davidson, who has spoken at 35 town halls on the topic, stated he had not seen the commercial but supports a broad-based sales tax and would not give data centers special status.
Missouri Promise later clarified that their ad refers to taxing the "digital economy," not data center buildings, land, or equipment. The core finding is that Amendment 5 does not explicitly state that data centers will be taxed. However, the report notes that if Amendment 5 passes, sales taxes could be expanded to include services, potentially taxing subscriptions to services like Gemini or ChatGPT, which are produced at data centers.
The amendment primarily aims to eventually replace income tax with expanded sales taxes, potentially on services.