Where Virginia Stands When It Comes to Modernizing Our Tax Code

Creating broadly shared opportunity and prosperity relies on lawmakers choosing to invest our shared resources in the building blocks of thriving communities, such as education and health. It also means shifting and modernizing how Virginia raises those resources.

In December, Governor Youngkin proposed to modernize the state sales tax base to include “new economy” products, treating the sale of a digital download the same as a Blu-Ray disc when it comes to taxes, for example. The General Assembly improved the proposal by including certain business-to-business transactions in this critical tax modernization, a step toward businesses and corporations paying more of their fair share. Together, these changes will bring in over $1 billion in state funds for the upcoming budget to invest in our communities.

Lawmakers must seize this opportunity and include the modern and fair proposal in the final budget negotiations. By doing so, Virginia would align itself with the 39 states, Alaska municipalities, and D.C. that have already extended their sales tax to digital products in some form, most of which include business-to-business transactions. We can’t afford to delay.

Learn more about the new economy tax and how increased resources in the General Assembly-passed budget would impact our schools: