Tax Breaks

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration is asking Baltimore's City Council to award a hefty tax break to a long-stalled west-side development project. Under legislation introduced by the administration, apartments to be built as part of the "Superblock" project near Lexington and Howard streets would receive a deep discount on property taxes for 20 years. City officials said it would not be feasible for the developers to build the 269-unit apartment building and 650-space underground garage without a tax incentive.

Think you've applied for the popular Homestead Property Tax Credit and you're all set to receive (or keep receiving) its benefits? Better make absolutely sure. The state is in the process of phasing out the old method of deciding whether a property is eligible for the cap on property-tax increases . Before, all you had to do was indicate in land records that the home would be your principal residence -- something that contributed to abuse of the break, both accidental and on purpose.

Plenty of Marylanders have received homestead property tax credits they weren't eligible for . But Michele Barley has the opposite problem -- she qualifies and isn't getting it. The Baltimore resident had a homestead credit that knocked $912 off her bill last tax year. This tax year? Zilch. Up went her mortgage payments as a result, and she wrote in an email that her calls to try to restore her credit had gotten her nowhere. "I am a single mother and cannot believe that I cannot get someone to help me with this," said Barley, who lives in the home as the tax break requires.

Getting a break on your bill from the Homestead Property Tax Credit? If you're among the 150,000 or so who haven't yet applied for the credit, a new(ish) one-time requirement, then make sure you get that form in by the end of the year. Those who miss the deadline will lose their credit in the 2013 tax year , which begins July 1 of next year. Poof, gone. The good news for confused homeowners who do manage to miss out is that you can at least get your credit restored for the 2014 tax year -- the amount you would have gotten if you had applied on time, rather than starting from scratch.

Harbor East, Harbor Point and most of Locust Point would be removed from a state enterprise zone that offers businesses tax breaks under new maps drawn up by the Baltimore Development Corp. The Baltimore City Council will review the plan this month to shrink the city's enterprise zone from 22,000 acres to 14,000 acres. The state enterprise zone program gives tax breaks to businesses for investing in property or hiring workers. "The enterprise zone has done its work in those areas," said Larisa Salamacha, the BDC's managing director of business development.

Vera Artis would seem to be a perfect fit for the state program created decades ago to ease the property tax burden on homeowners with modest incomes. She has no major assets beyond the tidy East Baltimore townhouse that she and her husband, now deceased, bought in the 1980s. Social Security and a pension bring in just $16,000 a year. "Money," she says, "is tight. " And in fact, based on her income, the state would have picked up more than half of her $1,280 property tax bill this year — if only she had known to apply for the help.

The owner of one of the last undeveloped sites at the Inner Harbor is seeking a property tax break from the city to allow it to compete with the developers of four other sites that have proposed or considered building a downtown headquarters for Exelon Corp. Stephen Gorn, president and chief executive of Questar Properties, has proposed a tower at 414 Light St. that would rise about 35 stories and contain offices for the Chicago-based energy giant. Exelon has pledged to build a Baltimore headquarters as part of a $7.9 billion buyout of Constellation Energy Group.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said the parts of Gov.Martin O'Malley's budget proposal capping the income levels at which taxpayers can make full use of income tax exemptions and reduction will be the most difficult to get through the General Assembly. Miller said the provisions are particularly controversial because they would affect many middle-class families, including couples who together make as little as $100,000 a year in taxable income. Speaking to reporters after Thursday morning's Senate session, Miller said he was "not sure" whether the governor would have to raise those thresholds in order to win passsage of an income tax increase.

State officials have revoked tax breaks from more than 550 homes in Baltimore after a Baltimore Sun analysis showed that hundreds of owners have been receiving the homestead property tax credit on multiple houses in apparent violation of state law. The owners now owe a total of $730,000 in additional property tax for the current year. Because the city also has revised tax bills for the past three years, the government's windfall could approach $3 million, assuming the owners pay the back taxes.

Last year, Gov. Martin O'Malley testified in favor of legislation that would allow small farms to be excluded from Maryland's estate tax. The bill failed, but it's almost certain to get serious consideration this year since Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller recently endorsed the proposal, too. The argument in favor of such an exemption is compelling. Farm estates typically feature high-value land with far less in cash and other liquid investments. Heirs may be forced to sell the land to meet the tax obligation, thus accelerating loss of crop land as more is converted into tract homes, shopping centers and other forms of sprawl development.