This morning, the House Ways & Means Committee’s Revenues Subcommittee received a briefing about the tax package the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee is expected to approve later today.

We anticipate that the proposal to expand Maryland’s sales tax to services may be altered. Health clubs and real property management may be removed from the bill and replaced with computer services and landscaping services.

We’re concerned about this because there has been no bill and no hearing on expanding the sales tax to cover computer services. Such an expansion could generate around $200 million paid primarily by Maryland businesses. With this expansion, the business share of new taxes could approach $900 million, which would equate to Maryland businesses paying three-quarters of the overall tax increase.

We’ll provide further updates later today.