The General Assembly will focus on several areas affecting Maryland corporations today:
At 1 p.m. in the Joint Hearing Room, the House Ways and Means Committee, House Appropriations Committee, and the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee will be focusing on the first of several major tax proposals as part of the governor’s plan. The three specific corporate tax proposals to be heard this afternoon are:
- Controlling interest
- Corporate income tax
- Combined reporting
These are contained in the comprehensive tax bill HB 2 titled, “The Tax Reform Act of 2007.“ The MACPA’s State Tax Committee sent a letter expressing concerns about the Combined Reporting proposal and its impact on Maryland businesses. In our comment letter, we requested more details about exactly what the governor is attempting to do with this proposal. We also pointed out that according the economic study in which we participated with the Chamber of Commerce and Maryland Bankers Association, combined reporting would have the largest negative impact of all of the options studied, with a job loss of 18.3 jobs lost per million dollars of revenue raised.
See our prior post on the special session, which includes a link to the economic study and other background.
Here is the reality of this situation: If the legislators do not hear from businesses, they will continue to tax whatever they can. What can you do if these proposals will adversely affect your business or your clients’ businesses?
Call or e-mail your representatives, the governor and the three main tax writing committees. They do want to hear comments and they do listen.
- Gov. Martin O’Malley
- Senate President Mike Miller
- House Speaker Mike Busch
- Senate Budget and Taxation Committee
- House Ways and Means Committee
- House Appropriations Committee
Here is the hearing schedule for the rest of the special session. We just heard that Speaker Busch has requested a sales tax bill be put in for taxes on business services, which we will vigorously oppose. We will keep you posted.