Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tax Commission Recommends No Combined Reporting in 2011
The Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission voted 13 to 4 on Tuesday to recommend that the General Assembly not implement combined reporting for corporate income taxes at its 2011 session. Combined reporting, which would have significantly altered methods and levels of corporate income taxes, was one of the most hotly debated issues before the Commission during the past two years. The Maryland Chamber, along with many other businesses and business groups, had argued that combined reporting would make Maryland’s tax laws less competitive, cause massive shifts in business tax liability, and needlessly increase the complexity and uncertainty of corporate taxes. Ultimately, the Commission agreed that now was not the time to be considering major tax changes.
Although we will certainly still see legislation introduced every year to propose combined reporting, the Commission’s action is a significant victory for Maryland businesses and signals that the administration and legislative leaders will not support this issue in the near term. We thank Delegate Kumar Barve of Montgomery County for his leadership in making the motion to defer consideration of combined reporting, Governor O’Malley and legislative leaders, and the many businesses and business organizations that collectively worked over the past two years to help promote a competitive business tax structure in Maryland.
The Commission also adopted recommendations to:
- Suggest that DBED lead a workgroup to evaluate the effectiveness of business tax incentives; and
- Reaffirm Maryland’s support for the Streamlined Sales Tax project.
Commission staff will have a draft report available the first week of December that discusses these issues and other topics evaluated by the Commission. The Commission will review that draft report at a meeting in Annapolis on December 7th at 2:00. Contact Ron Wineholt for further information at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
