GOP Blames Tax for Drop in Million-Dollar Earners
The number of self-reported million-dollar earners in Maryland has dropped by roughly a third compared with this time last year, renewing debate yesterday about whether the state's year-old "millionaires' tax" is driving rich people beyond its borders.</br></br>The data from April's tax filings, released by the comptroller's office, came with a couple of big caveats. At least part of the drop-off in Marylanders whose returns showed more than $1 million in taxable income was certainly due to the recession and the decline it has brought in earnings from capital gains and real estate. And the figures do not include taxpayers who filed for extensions.</br></br>Still, the "substantial decline" in million-dollar earners filing on time was enough for the comptroller's office to announce that it will "be thoroughly analyzing these returns and their implications." And it was enough for opponents of the state's new surcharge to say, in essence, "I told you so." "I don't think anyone can dispute that some people have left Maryland," said Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard). "That's what we were trying to explain when we were voting on this."</br></br>Among the skeptics, however, was Warren Descheneaux, the chief fiscal adviser to the legislature, which last year raised the state's top marginal tax rate, applied to income above $1 million, from 5.5 percent to 6.25 percent.</br></br>The new rate, which is set to expire after three years, was expected to affect roughly 6,000 taxpayers, about 40 percent of whom reside in Montgomery County, based on the previous year's tax data.