Publications

Maine Taxation Committee Suspends Review of Business Tax Expenditures

Alert
02.16.2012

The Maine Taxation Committee decided yesterday to suspend its review of business tax expenditures (a term referring to the combined tax exemptions, credits and other programs reducing the tax burden for a broad range of economic activities).  After significant pressure from the business community, the committee chairs and a majority of the committee voted to curtail the review of these expenditures and end the committee's work on this broad-based initiative.

What Does This Mean for Maine Businesses? 

In the past few weeks, the committee had begun a review of tax incentive programs, working from a report compiled by the Office of Fiscal and Program Review.  Some Democratic committee members had been advocating this process, seeking potential revenue to address the state's budget shortfall.  Given the challenges faced in the current budget negotiations, this initiative represented a real threat to important tax programs for Maine businesses. Suspending this effort means that programs such as the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement (BETR), the Property Used in Manufacturing program, the Packaging Materials program and many other tax initiatives are no longer currently planned for review as possible cuts.

Preti attorneys, along with representatives of a large segment of the business community, worked with the committee to achieve this result.  While this sweeping review has ended, the committee did signal its willingness to consider specific tax expenditures on a case-by-case basis at the request of members.

Questions?

Preti's Maine Legislative Team and Taxation attorneys will continue to closely monitor the Tax Committee and the ongoing budget negotiations and be prepared to advocate on behalf of our clients.

If you have any questions, please contact Steve Hudson or Michael Sheehan.