Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Bill Would Impose Sales Tax on Professional Services
House Ways & Means Committee Chair Sheila Hixson has introduced legislation (HB 1051) that would extend the sales tax to 29 additional services, including such business services as tax preparation, management consulting and business consulting, real property management, testing labs, staffing services, drafting, and business brokerage services.
Taxing professional services would make Maryland less competitive. We believe such taxes increase administrative complexity and the cost of compliance. In addition, small businesses would be disproportionately impacted by extending the sales tax to business services, as larger companies can perform many of these services in-house. Since these activities are not taxed in neighboring jurisdictions, the bill would give those states a competitive advantage in providing those business services.
The bill will be heard in the House Ways & Means Committee on March 6 at 1 p.m. For more information, contact Ron Wineholt at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
It may just be me, but it strikes me as curious that lawyers always seem to be exempted from these efforts to tax professional services…