Direct Taxes on Advertising Services.

Nine states and four major cities have gross receipts taxes on advertising services. They currently range from 5 percent to less than 1 percent. Additional state and local governments have been confronting advertisers with proposals to institute direct taxes on advertising. The cause appears to be largely the need for increased revenues, not an attempt to harass advertisers. Considerable insight about the effects of such taxes on advertisers and their suppliers was available from a convenient ad hoc "experiment." One state imposed such a tax for two years and then repealed it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]