Tax Credit

Fourteen Maryland biotechnology companies tapped nearly $6 million in new funding from investors who qualified for a state tax credit. The Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit is a state-mandated program that allows for a 50 percent tax break, up to $250,000, per investor in a qualified biotech company. To qualify, companies must be less than 12 years old, have headquarters in Maryland, employ fewer than 50 people and be state-certified as a biotechnology company. The tax credit is a central component of Gov. Martin O'Malley's BioMaryland 2020 plan, a 10-year, $1.3 billion strategy for growing the state's biotech industry.

For weeks city and state officials have been on a scavenger hunt. Their goal: To track down documents, if they exist, showing that 76 property owners in Baltimore have been legitimately receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in discounts on local property tax bills. The search began after the city office responsible for approving the historic property tax credit was unable to locate key records. Those records would prove that the properties' owners had received “final certification” needed to qualify for a 10-year tax break on historic rehabs.

Home buyers in the Baltimore area picked up the pace last month as the spring selling season got under way -- and the deadline for an $8,000 tax credit loomed. As prices continued to fall, March home sales rose 17 percent from a year earlier in the metro area, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems said Friday. The company, which runs the multiple-listing service used by buyers and sellers, said new contracts signed in March -- deals that will likely turn into settled sales this month or next -- jumped almost 40 percent.

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien invoked the recently announced Baltimore Archdiocese school closings in urging state lawmakers Wednesday to approve a corporate income tax credit as a "critically important tool" to help public and private schools. Appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee, O'Brien said difficult decisions have to be made to "avoid losing these schools one by one," and he argued that the business tax credit could be part of the solution. "We pledge to leave no stone unturned" to sustain the church's commitment to education, said O'Brien, one of several witnesses to appear during a hearing that went on for more than three hours.

The Baltimore Development Corp. is to hold a hearing Wednesday evening to discuss whether Harbor Point, the future home of Exelon Corp.'s Baltimore headquarters, should again be included in a state-wide tax credit program. John Paterakis' Harbor East Development Group LLC has put together an application requesting that Harbor Point and two nearby blocks between Fleet and Lancaster streets be included in Baltimore's Enterprise Zone. The submission would need approval from the Baltimore City Council and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development for the roughly 32-acre site to be included.

Sales of previously owned homes soared 7.4 percent in the traditionally slow month of November as buyers looked to take advantage of a tax credit for first-time purchases, an industry group said Tuesday. Sales of single-family houses, townhouses, condominiums and co-ops rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.54 million units in November, the National Association of Realtors in Washington said. That is 44.1 percent above the 4.54 million sales pace of November 2008.

The Howard County Council is considering this month a bill to authorize property tax credits for homeowners whose property meets environmental design standards, a measure that would make the county one of the few local governments to give such breaks. Under the bill, owners of newly built homes that meet the "silver" standard in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED certification, awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council, could receive up to a 25 percent discount on their county property tax bill, while homes with the highest LEED rating could earn a 75 percent discount the first year.

Relatively few employers have applied to claim a state tax credit for hiring Marylanders off the unemployment rolls, raising questions about its effectiveness as a job-creation tool. Six months into the program, businesses have qualified to collect less than 10 percent of $20 million the state budgeted. Total hires: 350 previously unemployed people. The first-come, first-served program could support 4,000 tax credits of $5,000 each; businesses have until the end of the year to apply.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, heading into an election year at a time of high unemployment, told a crowd of small-business owners Monday that he will ask the General Assembly to approve a $3,000 tax credit for companies hiring jobless Marylanders. He said he wants the state to give businesses the tax break for each unemployed resident they put back to work. O'Malley, who unveiled the idea at the Greater Baltimore Committee's small-business summit in Baltimore, sees it as a one-year incentive capped at $20 million - meaning almost 6,700 residents could be hired.