This writer to should stick to writing about or smoking marijuana. The Maine
"tax reform" is bad for business.

Posted by William Lawrence on Jul. 11, 2009 at 11:07 PM

I read the new bill on the internet. This appears to be a very regrissive new
tax law. Retirees are going to get hit hard. Retiree benefits and social
security will be taxable? My adjusted gross of approximately $38,000.is now
taxed at a rate of 5%. Under the new law it will be 6.5% and apparantly will
apply to SSI.

Posted by Kirk Palmer on Jul. 18, 2009 at 01:34 PM

I,ve read the so called tax reform package, and It's another desperate attempt
by Maine democrates to increase taxes, there vision of tax reform is nothing
more then a tax shift to tax more goods &services.Tax reform needs to begin
with significant reductions in state spending.Sign a petition to put this so
called tax reform package question on the Nov. ballot

Posted by Ron Collins on Jul. 18, 2009 at 05:09 PM

The July 10, 2009 post by David Brunori on the recently passed "tax reform" law
(LD 1495) shows that even tax experts don't read the fine print or understand
the details of this poorly designed law. As a retired Corporate Tax Director
and CPA with 30 years of tax experience, I was amazed at how deceptive
proponents have been in promoting this tax reform package and how little they
understood the details. At all turns, they tried to suppress the facts that
did not favor their position.

The main sponsor of LD 1495, Rep. Piotti claims that it’s a myth that LD 1495
is a giveaway to rich. The Maine Revenue Services (MRS) prepared a report on
the impact of the new law on Maine taxpayers. The report illustrated that a
group of 4,456 taxpayers in the top 1% of Mainers earning over $333,388 will
get $27.8 million of the total $53.9 million net tax cut. Accordingly, these
4,456 taxpayers will receive about 52% of the reported tax savings in 2010. In
addition, because LD 1495 does not have inflation adjustments until 2014 that
were in the old Maine law, the tax savings in 2010 for 99.3% of Mainers will
become a tax increase in 2013, assuming an inflation rate of 2.5% per year in
2011-2013. In 2013, this group of 4,456 taxpayers will have a tax decrease in
total of $27 million, while the other 99.3% of Maine taxpayers will see a tax
increase of more than $24 million.

Rep. Piotti notes that the tax reform bill was supported by newspapers,
economists and business leaders. However, I have not yet met one supporter of
the law that understood the details of the law (that includes Mr. Brunori).
Even as a tax expert, it took over 200 hours of detail analysis and
calculations for me to fully understand this complex tax law and its impact on
taxpayers and state revenue. I doubt any of the supporters ever did the detail
analysis that one should perform to make an informed decision on the merits of
the law. I found that many supporters based their support on three false
claims of the proponents. They claimed that the bill would 1) give $54 million
in tax cuts to Mainers with most Mainers getting $100 to $300 a year, 2) give
substantial tax cuts to small business that would promote business expansion in
Maine and 3) was overall a revenue neutral tax bill. The facts illustrate that
none of these three claims are true.

MRS report showed that 99.3% of Mainers will average only a $39 net tax cut in
2010 and that it becomes a tax increase of $37 each by 2013 assuming annual
inflation of just 2.5% a year in 2011-2013. The Proponents claim that LD 1495
provides incentives for owners of small businesses that file as individuals to
locate in the state. The truth is 99% of Maine’s most successful small
businesses will have on average a small tax increase under LD 1495 in 2010, so
accordingly there is no real tax incentive to locate in Maine. The MRS report
estimates that the 59,905 taxpayers with income from $114,104 to $333,388 will
in total have a net tax increase of $14 each in 2010. Less than 1% of Maine’s
most successful small businesses earn more than $333,388.

While the original version of the tax reform bill had inflation adjustments in
years 2011-2013, and might have kept the law revenue neutral, LD 1495
eliminated the inflation adjustments until 2014. The elimination of these
adjustments results in creating over $55 million in additional sales and income
tax revenue over the old law assuming only a 2.5% inflation factor in
2011-2013.

I welcome an honest debate based on the facts, but based on the past actions of
the proponents of LD 1495, that is unlikely to happen. Instead proponents like
Rep. Piotti want to suppress the facts and asks voters to not sign a petition
that will give them the time to educate themselves on this poorly designed tax
law. Why are they so afraid of the truth? Start educating yourself by going to
www.mainedemocratstaxreform.org.

Posted by Albert A. DiMillo, Jr. on Aug. 23, 2009 at 10:19 AM