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Sales Tax May Be Expanded in Maryland

July 27th, 2011 by WCBC Radio

A Senate committee Tuesday listened to the pros and cons of expanding Maryland's sales tax base to include more services, as well as goods purchased over the Internet. Tangible products, but few services, sold by Maryland retailers are taxed at 6 percent. This year, the sales tax is predicted to generate $4.2 billion, about 30 percent of the state's general fund revenues, according to the Department of Legislative Services. Legislative services analysts prepared a chart to show how much additional revenue the state could make by taxing engineering services, cable television, automobile repair, golf and other matters. If the state imposed a 6 percent tax on those and a dozen other services, it could bring in at least $1 billion more each year, the department estimated. Members of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee- including chairman  Democrat Edward Kasemeyer, hastened to say they are not considering expanding the sales tax base at the time, but they spent more than two hours on the topic at a hearing in Annapolis…





 

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