Tax Credit

If you're a homeowner making $60,000 or less, you might qualify for help on your property taxes. But the deadline to apply is fast approaching. The Homeowners' Property Tax Credit , intended to help low- and moderate-income owners, caps the amount you must pay based on your income. The limit ranges from $4,380 as the maximum tab for eligible recipients making $60,000, all the way down to $0 for those with $8,000 or less in household income. The basic rules go like this: No more than $60,000 in total household income, and a net worth of less than $200,000 -- not including the value of the home and any qualified retirement savings.

Baltimore's spending board voted Wednesday to approve another property tax break for city homeowners, part of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's plan to cut property taxes by 22 percent over 10 years. The tax credit approved by the Board of Estimates would knock $140 off the median property tax bill on owner-occupied homes. That is on top of the $40 cut that came when the panel created the credit last year. The numbers are based on the taxes that would be due on a property assessed at $200,000.

The deadline to apply for a property tax credit that, on average, cuts more than $1,000 off a homeowner's tax bill, has been extended until the end of October. Maryland residents can apply for the Homeowners' Property Tax Credit through October 31, said Robert E. Young, director of the state Department of Assessments and Taxation. The agency has extended the deadline from Sept. 1. Application numbers have jumped in recent years, as people's jobs or overtime income has vanished, and Young said he didn't want the newly eligible to miss out. “We administratively can extend the program until October the 31 st ,” he said.

The Sun recently reported that a third top City Hall employee had contracted the highly contagious "improper homestead tax credit on non-owner occupied homes" disease ("Mayoral aid got tax break for rental property," May 1). Khalil Zaied, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's recently appointed deputy chief of operations, found out in January that he had contracted the disease after receiving improper homestead tax credits for a rental property he owned for several years. Mr. Zaied explained that he remembered reading about this mysterious disease in 2011 but had been so busy with his duties on behalf of the citizens of Baltimore at the time that he didn't realize he had contracted the illness himself.

Businesses can receive a $5,000 tax credit for each out-of-work Marylander hired this year, under a plan nearing final approval in the General Assembly. Gov. Martin O'Malley pushed the tax credit as a way to stimulate hiring at a time when the state faces a 7.5 percent unemployment rate - the worst in a quarter-century. Lawmakers increased the credit from the $3,000 O'Malley proposed. The House of Delegates approved the Senate's legislation Wednesday, but the two chambers must agree upon slight changes added by the House.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake intends to introduce legislation to the Baltimore City Council that would provide a 15-year tax break to apartment developments in downtown. The mayor announced the news at the annual meeting of the Downtown Partnership on Oct. 4. “The Mayor's office, Finance Department and Downtown Partnership developed a targeted 15-year tax credit program for newly-constructed and conversion residential projects in downtown,” Rawlings-Blake told the crowd near the end of her speech.

A $400 tax credit provided by the economic stimulus plan may leave more than 15.4 million Americans owing money to the IRS because of under-withholding from their paychecks, an inspector general report said. The IRS said the number will be far lower. The Treasury inspector general for tax administration said many employers advanced more than the $400-per-individual tax credit. Workers will have to return the difference when they file tax returns, and some might have to pay penalties. - Bloomberg News

State health officials and advocates joined CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Tuesday in unveiling a more than $150,000 campaign to spread the word about tax credits available to small businesses under federal health care reform. Small businesses with 25 or fewer employees and average wages of less than $50,000 are eligible for a credit of up to 35 percent of their health insurance costs. The businesses must also pay 50 percent of employee premiums to be eligible. Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, other state officials and members of Maryland Health Care for All!

City and state lawmakers called Monday for stepped-up scrutiny of property tax credit programs in Baltimore, after a Baltimore Sun investigation found that chronic errors have cost the city millions of dollars in lost revenue, despite warnings stretching back more than a decade. "There should be an audit of both the state and city side," said City Councilman Carl Stokes, chairman of the taxation committee, who called on the city's elected leaders in Annapolis to become involved. Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked the state Office of Legislative Audits to examine the repeated mistakes made by the state assessments agency in calculating the city's historic property tax credit.

The proposed Universal Design Tax Credit Bill does a disservice to Howard County taxpayers. The bill would give tax credits to property owners for 50 percent of the costs of increasing accessibility of their homes, for example, by expanding doorways or installing handrails in their bathrooms. The goal of increasing accessibility is laudable. However, the writing of the bill does not require that the homeowners need these renovations, or even require that they need financial assistance.

Filming of the second season of the Netflix production “House of Cards” began in the Baltimore area Monday, and with it came an announcement from Gov. Martin O'Malley that the first season of the political thriller starring Kevin Spacey had brought $140 million in economic impact and 2,200 jobs to the state. The state's Film Production Tax Credit helped bring “House of Cards” here, according to O'Malley. “Together with our leaders in the General Assembly, we've expanded the Film Production Tax Credit,” O'Malley said in a statement, “and as we welcome the cast and crew back, we also look forward to more job creation and economic opportunity to come.” Both the dollar figures and the politics behind them in O'Malley's statement were quickly called into question by critics of the incentives program.

Four Maryland organizations won the right to raise $135 million for community development projects by selling federal tax credits, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The New Markets tax credits help developers fund projects intended to add jobs and bring other improvements to distressed areas. Investors purchasing the credits from New Markets recipients receive a break on their federal income taxes. The local recipients are Baltimore-based CDF Development, a Cordish Cos. affiliate that intends to invest in retail and mixed-use projects; Baltimore-based Harbor Bankshares Corp., which will offer below-market-rate loans to projects in low-income neighborhoods; Columbia-based ESIC New Markets Partners, which focuses on health care centers, healthy-food options and mixed-use developments; and Bethesda-based Mid-City Community CDE, whose investments will include transit-oriented businesses.

Gov. Martin O'Malley last week signed a law extending the deadline for homeowners to apply for the Homestead Tax Credit. Homeowners now have until Dec. 30, 2013, to submit an application. The credit is intended to keep property taxes on homeowner-occupied residences from increasing more than 10 percent (or less, depending on the jurisdiction) each year. Some owners of vacation and rental properties have been receiving the homestead credit improperly. In order to reduce the number of taxpayers receiving the credit on ineligible properties, more than five years ago the legislature instituted a one-time application requirement.

Developers converting older office buildings into apartments or building new complexes could get a significant tax break under a measure the Baltimore City Council approved Monday. The legislation is aimed at addressing a glut of vacancies in office buildings downtown, encouraging new or converted apartments in six other neighborhoods, and drawing new residents to the city. The list of requirements to qualify for the tax break is short: The development must be in one of the seven areas, must be a project involving at least 50 apartment units, and must have an environmentally friendly certification.

Lawmakers approved $25 million in tax credits for the film industry Tuesday, expanding and extending a program that was set to expire in 2014. Tuesday's vote sends to Gov. Martin O'Malley a bill that increases subsidies to film companies by $17.5 million over this year. O'Malley proposed the increased tax credit, along with credits for biotechnology and cyber security industries. Since the credits were first approved in 2011, they have gone to several projects including the popular Netflix series "House of Cards" that stars Kevin Spacey and was filmed in Baltimore.

A project to renovate a building in the Warfield Cultural and Commerce Center, in Sykesville, has been awarded $246,619 in state tax credits in Maryland's Sustainable Communities Tax Credit program. This week Gov. Martin O'Malley announced that five projects statewide, including Warfield, will receive the credits in a program that officials said would help create some 500 construction jobs. State officials said that in all, the five projects received a total of $6,992,341 in tax credits to leverage construction projects with a total cost of $31,836,476.

After reading a number of recent articles and letters regarding the solar energy property tax credit, I thought it would be helpful to provide a historical perspective. The current credit of 50 percent of the cost of a qualified system, up to a maximum of $5,000, was enacted by the County Council in 2006. The positive impact on the solar-energy industry was immediate. Solar installations in the county skyrocketed by more than 500 percent the following year, new companies sprang up in and around the county, and hundreds of new jobs were created.

Lawmakers approved $25 million in tax credits for the film industry Tuesday, expanding and extending a program that was set to expire in 2014. Tuesday's vote sends to Gov. Martin O'Malley a bill that increases subsidies to film companies by $17.5 million over this year. O'Malley proposed the increased tax credit, along with credits for biotechnology and cyber security industries. Since the credits were first approved in 2011, they have gone to several projects including the popular Netflix series "House of Cards" that stars Kevin Spacey and was filmed in Baltimore.

As part of her push to increase Baltimore's population, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake plans to introduce legislation to the City Council next week that will provide generous tax breaks to builders of apartment buildings downtown and in six other neighborhoods. "It will promote development in areas right now where the market might not have the proper stimulus," said Bill Henry, vice chairman of the City Council's taxation committee. The tax credit proposal is one of Rawlings-Blake's most direct legislative efforts to increase the population and could prove to be a significant tool to reinvigorate underused buildings and stagnating sections of the city.