ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland officials are working on a study to find out just how much tax revenue the state is losing to Internet sales and what could be done to recapture the money.
In an April letter, Gov. Martin O'Malley asked Comptroller Peter Franchot to study the issue. The comptroller asked the Maryland Bureau of Revenue Estimates last month to prepare the study, which is expected to be done by the end of summer.
Franchot said he believes lawmakers are likely to take up the issue within the next year.
"It's a fair application of existing taxes," Franchot said. "It's a business fairness issue, and it's increasingly a revenue issue because of the greater use of the Internet."
Internet retailers are required to collect sales tax only when they sell to customers living in a state where they have a store or office. Franchot, a Democrat, said he has asked his staff to come up with an estimated tax bill for Internet retailer Amazon.com, which he said would add up to tens of millions of dollars if the company had a store in Maryland.
"The key point for Maryland is that the Internet industry is no longer in need of subsidies and tax protections and special treatment," Franchot said. "They've grown into behemoth companies that they currently are, and they have a responsibility to the states, I believe, that they do commerce in. Right now, they're avoiding it on a technicality, which is `we don't have a bricks and mortar company in Maryland.'"
O'Malley, a Democrat, noted in his letter that the state's Department of Legislative Services adapted a study by the University of Texas to estimate that Maryland loses more than $160 million each year from unpaid taxes related to Internet sales.
"I am concerned that the failure of any subset of retailers to collect and remit sales tax has a negative impact on Maryland's overall fiscal strength, including our ability to meet our priority investments such as public school construction or maintaining our Transportation Trust Fund," O'Malley wrote.
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9 comments:
Whelp O'malley is at it again... I guess it is time to buy a PO box in Delaware and have things shipped there... HAHA I can still get around your stupid taxes and charges and fees O'malley... so go ahead a ruin Maryland all you want... Just to point out to you O'malley, no-one goes to Maryland for squat unless they want to see the capital and or go to the beach...
How about you stop using my taxes for your shitty hole of a place b-more and leave it here on the eastern shore aka SBY and we can see what will get done... you haven't done anything to help Maryland period... Just like Harris said, YOU O'malley have a SPENDING problem just like the rest of the idiots who say their running the country...
First they spend spend spend, then they tax tax tax to cover it.
Dumbocrats can never run out of ways to tax.
3:01 Well said!!
No sales tax off sets the shipping. Charge sales tax and it will help kill internet sales
MORE taxes fee, fines, and surcharges. Ever more ingenious ways to get money from the citizens. When this is passed (and bet your bippy it WILL be passed), there will be some other entity, action, or product that they will find a reason to tax. THESE are the people who promised to "change" things, and again, people fell for it. They can't stop spending. They also can't stop dreaming up new laws to enforce, in order to take MORE money. You can't even take a boat out to go fishing with your family without the DNR nazi's boarding your boat like you are drug smugglers. NOT doing anything illegal, but you get BOARDED to see IF you are doing anything illegal. And you better not resist or get smart. They, like the rest of the government roaches, think THEY own the water, land, and the citizens. And ACT like it. WE own it.
It is a revenue issue now because of the mismanagement in Annapolis. These bloodsuckers are in a corner and the sun is about to rise. Its always about public schools and the transportation trust fund. We are a bunch of incompetent clowns, but think about the children.. and some salt on the roads when there is 20 inches of snow on them.. the children..
If they spent as much time on fuiguring out why they were spending too much - it would get fixed much quicker...they invent a new tax...we go to Delaware to beat it!
Maybe if they would stop wasting all this time trying to come up with ways to raise taxes or charge a fee for everything and more time on creating JOBS people would be able to buy more things which in turn would give them more revenue!
please tell me where to go to buy w/o paying sales tax. EVERY internet purchase I make is charged the tax, and it has been that way for a long time!
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