A new sales tax on technology services that aims to raise nearly $500 million in its first year is at the center of a slew of Maryland tax changes set to go into effect on Tuesday.
Maryland lawmakers introduced and fast-tracked the 3% tax with limited public input in the final weeks of the 90-day session earlier this year in order to help fill a $3.3 billion deficit.
Businesses — now universally dependent on software, data and IT services — protested, saying the tax would decimate their finances and risk losing what Gov. Wes Moore has identified as a key sector for economic growth.
Proponents, on the other hand, said it was a compromise — one that modernizes Maryland’s tax code by imposing a tax rate on select services at a rate that’s half as much as the larger 6% sales tax.
Here’s how Maryland plans to implement the new tax, according to guidance, emergency regulations and other resources from the office of Comptroller Brooke Lierman, the state’s chief tax collector.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Sam Janesch over at Fox 45 Baltimore
