TAX TALK

The Formation of the MSBA/MACPA Task Force to make Recommendation to the Maryland Comptroller's Office

By: Andrea B. Gillespie, CPA, Esq. and Caroline D. Ciraolo, Esq.

The Tax Section, under the guidance of the MSBA Tax Section Council, is participating in a new project that could potentially benefit tax practitioners, Maryland taxpayers and the Comptroller’s Office. The Tax Section, together with the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants ("MACPA"), has formed a Task Force to make recommendations regarding possible changes to the assessment and collection procedures employed by that office.

Comptroller Schaefer, a man long respected for his drive to improve any organization under his charge, recently challenged the MACPA to propose improvements to the procedures, polices and processes of the Comptroller’s Office. In response, the Maryland State Tax Committee of the MACPA and the Tax Section of the Maryland State Bar, the two organizations whose members have the most consistent and continuing contact with the Comptroller’s Office, are participating in a Task Force for this purpose.

The formation of the Task Force was announced by Myron H. VanSickle, CPA at the MACPA Comptroller’s Luncheon on December 1, 2000. The Task Force had its initial meeting on January 10, 2001, at which time an agenda was adopted.

A plan of action for the next two years will be finalized after discussions with the Comptroller’s office.

We are interested in hearing your comments and suggestions.

Please mail, fax or e-mail your comments to:

Andrea B. Gillespie
Thomas, Ronald & Cooper, P.A.
409 Washington Avenue, Suite 314
Towson, Maryland 21204
Telephone number: 410-296-6777
Fax number: 410-821-8406

All comments will be kept in strictest confidence unless we receive specific permission from you allowing us to release this information. In the future, we will keep the Tax Section membership abreast of the Task Force’s progress through reports appearing in Tax Talk.

Thanks to Comptroller Schaefer, we have an opportunity to make our jobs as tax practitioners easier, while helping the Comptroller and Maryland taxpayers. We must rise to the occasion.