In 1980, the

comptroller

opened the

Central

Registration

Unit, offering a

convenient

one-stop service

for businesses

opening tax

accounts in

Maryland.

80% of
Maryland's
4.2 million
citizens lived in the
Baltimore-Washing-
ton, D.C. corridor by
1980.

1980s

he 1980s
proved to be a
robust decade for
both Maryland's
diversified
economy and the
State Comptroller's
Office, where
several changes
dramatically al-
tered the sales and
income tax opera-
tions.

Formal income
tax fraud aware-
ness training began
in 1981, helping
employees to
prevent millions of
tax dollars from going into the
wrong hands.

In the sales tax division, audi-
tors began a consolidated audit
approach to their nearly 100,000
accounts, using a new centralized
address file.

By 1986, tax collectors were
using a new computer-assisted
collection system.

Within another year, Maryland
became the first state in the nation
to use computerized statistical
sampling techniques to perform
sales tax audits.

Federal income tax reform
introduced in 1986 eliminated

Theresa Russ (left) and Joyce Jones of the Comptroller's Office
helped some of the 25,143 callers who responded to
Maryland's tax amnesty campaign in 1987 to "come forward
and come clean," adding more than $34 million to state and
local government coffers. Photo by Michael waish

adding hundreds of new taxpayers
to state tax rolls.

Beginning in 1988, the legisla-
ture made several changes affect-
ing state income tax forms, includ-
ing a checkoff feature for donating
to Chesapeake Bay-related
projects, an increased standard
deduction, higher personal exemp-
tion amounts and new benefits for
disabled and military taxpayers.

For the first time, Comptroller
Goldstein included a list of taxpay-
ers' rights in Maryland's state tax
booklet.

By decade's end, hundreds of

business taxpayers were using

many deductions while broadening

an

the tax base - creating dramatic

expanded, automated 24-hour

phone service in the Sales and use

changes on the state revenue side.

Maryland's tax amnesty in
1987 generated $34.6 million in
delinquent taxes - mostly personal
and corporate income taxes - while

Tax Division for faster response to
tax inquiries and forms requests.

24