During a 2007 special session, SB 2 - Tax Reform Act of 2007 was passed by the Maryland General Assembly. This bill would apply a 6% sales tax to a myriad of computer related services including computer programming, data management, systems planning and design to name a few. This provision will go into effect on July 1, 2008.
I am a Maryland resident and partner in a small tech firm in Howard County. This bill would be devastating to our business. Some quick facts:
- This bill does nothing to help business growth in Maryland.
- The bill language is confusing and problematic, causing a bevy of lawsuits in the one state its been enacted - Connecticut.
- The bill was passed without any public discourse or hearing. Please also note, this was not originally in O'Malley's budget recommendations.
- This would be one of the only services in Maryland that would be taxed. it's illogical and does harm to the business climate moving forward in MD.
Clearly, this is a real problem. My best understanding is that this was created and enacted by a group called the "lunch bunch". I am a Democratic business owner and am outraged at the idiocy of how and why this moved forward. Additionally, we would be forced to move our operations to antother state if not repealed. 6% is not sustainable!
We inherited a mess from the Erlich. I get that but this does nothing to remove the impression that Dems are not business friendly. If any other free staters have thoughts, links to resources etc, I'd love to hear from you. I have written my local representatives as well.