Senate taxes committee advances bill to tax social‑media data collection after amendment

Senate File 3,197, a proposal to impose an excise tax on data collection by large social‑media platforms, was discussed at length in the Minnesota Senate Taxes Committee and laid over as amended.

Senator Rest, the bill author, told the committee the proposal would “impose[] a tax . . . on the collection of consumer data by social media platform business[es],” and said the measure is aimed at large, for‑profit platforms that “have taken our information, our identifying information, and used it to, make millions and millions of dollars.” The committee adopted an author’s A2 amendment by voice vote; no roll‑call was recorded. Later in the hearing the chair announced, “Senate File 3,197 as amended will be laid over.”

Why it matters: supporters framed the bill as a modernizing change to Minnesota’s tax base and a way to raise new state revenue. Opponents warned of legal risk, economic side effects and pass‑through costs to small businesses that advertise online.

What the bill would do and who would be taxed - Threshold and scope: The bill would apply to a “social media platform business” that collects consumer data on more than 100,000 individuals in a month. A “consumer” is defined in the bill as an individual who establishes an account on an app or a website owned by the platform. The bill treats controlled groups under the Internal Revenue Code as a single entity…