Today’s Baltimore Sun features an op-ed by Maryland Chamber President & CEO Kathy Snyder that attempts to set the record straight about Maryland’s business tax burden and the proposal to adopt combined reporting. Read the article here.

The op-ed was triggered by recent news accounts and editorials that continue to repeat the claim that only half of large corporations in Maryland pay corporate income tax to the State of Maryland. A recent op-ed asserted that large companies use state services but “give nothing back to the state.”

As I’ve detailed here before:

• Businesses collectively paid over $9.4 billion in Maryland state and local taxes in fiscal year 2006. Maryland businesses pay 40 percent of all sales taxes, and also are the largest property tax payers in each county.
• Corporate income taxes received by Maryland during the past three years are the highest ever received by the state. Corporate income tax receipts doubled from fiscal year 2003 to 2006.
• Maryland businesses employ 2.1 million residents, underwrite much of the cost of government and provide significant funding to nonprofit and charitable groups.