This is the entrance to the Joint Hearing Room in Annapolis where the AELR Committee met to hear the emergency regulations by the Maryland Comptroller’s Office for the new Maryland Corporate Reporting requirements.

We were there to testify with changes that our State Tax Committee had requested when they first learned about these proposed regulations. This has its roots in the special session when it was enacted as SB 2 and then amended significantly in the regular session (with our support). It is also important to note that these reporting rules were dramatically reduced from those original requirements in SB 2 AND were in lieu of Maryland implementing combined tax reporting as a new taxation method for corporations.

We joined the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and the Tax Section of the State Bar Association in requesting amendments to these regulations.

The good news is that the legislators listened to our testimony and made several important amendments:

1. Changed the penalty structure to be “up to” $5,000 & $10,000 per day
2. Explicitly stated that the Comptroller can abate penalties based on cause
3. Added an extension of time to file for 45 days after the October 15th deadline

I want to note that the Comptroller’s office has worked with MACPA and the business community throughout this process and has always said that they would be very reasonable for this first year. Their concerns revolve around some corporations who stated that they would just pay the fines rather than report the information. Nevertheless, we heard form many of our members that had major questions or had clients or employers that simply did not know about these new requirements.

Yet another reason we need you to attend CPA Day in Annapolis to magnify our voice for situations just like this. I hope to see you on January 28, 2009 & you can register using this link:

http://www.macpa.org/Public/Catalog/CourseDetails.aspx?courseID=09181000

RESOURCES:

MACPA’s Maryland Corporate Reporting Resource Center