Office of the Comptroller

About the Office of the Comptroller of Maryland

The Comptroller is one of four statewide elected officials in Maryland. Unique among state financial officers, Maryland's Comptroller has diverse and far-reaching responsibilities that touch the lives of every Marylander.

The Comptroller of Maryland is the:

• Chief financial officer for Maryland
• Collector of revenue for state programs
• Provider of information technology services for most state agencies
• Regulator of the state's motor fuel industries
• Member of many state boards and commissions

You have to go back to the 15th century to find the origin of the word "comptroller," which means "financial officer." Interestingly, "comptroller" has also often been erroneously associated with the French word compte, which translates as "calculation."

A recent survey found a slight majority who prefer to say "comptroller" - with emphasis on the "p" - but almost half still use the old English pronunciation, "controller." Take your pick.

Nine other states, mostly eastern, use "comptroller" and four use "controller." Texas has a "Comptroller of Public Accounts" and South Carolina has a "Comptroller General." The rest use versions of treasurer or auditor, while two don't appear to have any financial officer with a title. Alaska has a "Commissioner of Administration." Maryland's 1851 Constitution calls for the "Comptroller of the Treasury" to "superintend fiscal affairs...for the support of the public credit."

Since the office was created by the Maryland Constitution of 1851, it has grown from a comptroller and one clerk to an agency of 1,100 employees.

The principal duty of this office is to collect taxes. With a budget of $110 million, the agency collects approximately $16 billion a year in state and local tax revenue and provides 12 branch offices throughout the state.

The major revenue sources are individual and business income taxes and sales and use taxes. The agency also collects taxes on motor fuel, estates, admissions and amusement, and alcohol and tobacco. It also tests motor fuel to ensure the quality of the product for the consumer.

By enforcing the collection of use tax, the comptroller's goal is to provide a level playing field for local businesses in competing with out-of-state retailers who sell through catalogs and on the Internet.

The comptroller audits taxpayers for compliance, handles delinquent tax collection, and enforces license and unclaimed property laws. The agency publicizes forgotten bank accounts, insurance benefits and other unclaimed assets of taxpayers.

The office provides information technology services critical to the daily operation of most state agencies. Acting as Maryland's chief accountant, the comptroller pays the state's bills, maintains its books, prepares financial reports, and pays state employees.

Links

• Boards and Other Responsibilities
• Agency Associations
• Code of Maryland Regulations
• How Your Personal Income Tax Dollars Were Spent
• How Your Community Tax Dollars Were Spent

The history of the comptroller's office parallels Maryland's history. Both have been filled with great leaders, un-sung heroes, intrigue, and conflict. Like Maryland's other elected officials, the 30 people who have served as comptrollers have affected the lives of citizens in many ways since 1851.

The "Comptroller of the Treasury" was created by the state constitution of 1851 to have "general superintendence of the fiscal affairs of the state." More specifically, the Comptroller's Office was created to keep watch over the State Treasurer whose activities were going unchecked.

The first comptroller, Philip Francis Thomas, had a salary of $2,500 and a staff of one clerk. This first office provided the money and accounting that made the government work and still does today. Comptroller Thomas and his early counterparts put together fiscal reports, printed piles of forms and collected revenue from lotteries and property taxes as well as license fees for peddling, hunting and fishing and getting married. The first comptrollers also spent a lot of their time signing forms until the office was able to obtain an official signature stamp in 1858.

Maryland's comptrollers have been lawyers, doctors, bankers, miners, newspapermen, teachers and farmers and all of them have been men. Some have had a huge impact on how we live today. Some have made a difference in a quieter way.

Comptroller Biographies

The public's right to information about government activities lies at the heart of a democratic government. Maryland's Public Information Act (PIA) grants the people of this State a broad right of access to public records while protecting legitimate governmental interests and the privacy rights of individual citizens. PIA requests made for information owned by the Comptroller of Maryland will be reviewed and processed per all applicable laws. The Maryland Office of the Attorney General (OAG) ensures that state agencies fairly, expeditiously, and correctly implement the Act when requests are made, while also protecting rights of privacy and other public policy goals.

For general information about the Public Information Act, review Access to Government Records Under the Maryland Public Information Act, Appendix I-1 from the Maryland Public Information Act Manual (14th Ed., October 2015) which is provided in full below.

Submission of PIA Requests to the Comptroller of Maryland

All requests for records maintained by the Comptroller of Maryland pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act should be submitted via this website, email or mail.

If requesting confidential taxpayer information, you will be required to provide proof of identity and/or authorization to receive the information requested. Authorization to receive confidential taxpayer information relating to a third‐party can be granted using Maryland Form 548: Power of Attorney, the form may be accessed at: https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/forms/current_forms/548.pdf.

Fees may be waived in certain cases of financial hardship or if waiver is in the public interest. To apply for a waiver on the basis of indigency, please complete the Affidavit of Indigency using the link below
http://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/OpenGov%20Documents/Appendix_D.pdf

A new online submission form will be available soon.

OR

Download the Public information Act (PIA) Records Request Form . You can email the filled form to pia@marylandtaxes.gov or mail it to the below address:

Jill Byczek, Public Information Act Representative
Comptroller of Maryland
P.O. Box 2983
Annapolis, MD 21404
(667) 401-1356
PIA@marylandtaxes.gov

The OAG maintains a current list of State, county and municipal PIA representatives. For further information on OAG PIA requests please visit their website.

Frequently Asked Questions

Maryland Public Information Act References and Revisions

A resource for both government officials seeking to meet their responsibilities under the Act and members of the press and public seeking access to information.

Updates to the Manual are maintained by the OAG, made online, and revision dates are posted in the table below.

• Summary of New PIA Provisions Effective October 1, 2015
• Correspondence Referenced in the PIA Manual
• Report of the OAG on the Public Security Exception of the PIA

Download the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the .PDF files below.

Comptroller of Maryland Transparency in Reporting

The Comptroller of Maryland is committed to providing fiscal transparency in reporting of state revenues and expenditures so that the public knows where state revenues originate, how the revenues are spent, and how their own tax dollars are distributed. Specifically, the Comptroller's Office was awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association for its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) which includes the financial statements of the State, as well as information required by Title 2, Section 102 of the State Finance and Procurement Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.  For a list of detailed reports, follow the links below:

• Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR)
• Maryland's Money: Where the Money Comes From (Revenue Reporting)
• Maryland's Money: Where Your Money Goes (Expenditure Reporting)
• Maryland's Money: What Your Money Does (Personal Income Tax Receipts & Benefits)

Comptroller of Maryland's Ombudsman's Office

Building upon the agency's commitment to stellar customer service, the agency has created a new unit dedicated to providing taxpayers with a high-level contact for tax issues that haven't been resolved adequately. The Ombudsman's Office, led by Dana Frank Buker, is dedicated to helping taxpayers navigate government channels and come to a swift resolution of their problems.

Ombudsman

If you have a problem with the Comptroller's Office that you are unable to resolve through routine channels, the Comptroller's ombudsman may be able to help.

The ombudsman can:

• Respond to your inquiries about unresolved tax matters including mistakes made, undue delays, poor or misleading information or staff behavior;
• Ensure that the appropriate staff person reviews your complaints;
• Provide you with a written response about the Department's decision, if needed;
• Inform you of what action, if any, you should take to resolve the issue, and
• Assist you in understanding your rights and responsibilities under the Maryland Tax Statute.

The ombudsman cannot:

• Review complaints relating to tax policy or legislation
• Review matter that are before the courts
• Automatically stop legal action being taken by the Comptroller's Office to collect a liability
• Review complaints that other statutory bodies would deal with

Contact Information

Comptroller's Ombudsman
Telephone number: 410-260-6222
E-mail: ombudsman@marylandtaxes.gov
Address: 80 Calvert Street, PO Box 466, Annapolis, MD 21404-0466

Maryland Relay is a public service provided by the Maryland Department of Budget and Management/Telecommunications Access of Maryland, which enables standard telephone users to communicate with deaf, hard - of - hearing, deaf/blind or speech - disabled people who use a TTY. For more information you can visit their web site, https://doit.maryland.gov/mdrelay/ or call the following numbers.

Access Numbers

1. 7-1-1 (in Maryland)
2. 1-800-735-2258 (Anywhere)
3. 410-260-7157 or 410-767-1967 (Baltimore Metro TTY)
4. 301-949-6032 (Wheaton TTY)
5. 1-888-VCO-WORD =1-888-826-9673 (for VCO)
6. 1-877-735-5151 (for ASCII)
7. 1-800-785-5630 (MD Speech-to-Speech Relay)
8. 1-900-386-3323 (900 call via MD Relay)

Contact Us by Phone

For any tax type not covered below, please call us at 410-260-7980, or 1-800-638-2937 outside of Central Maryland.

Contact Us by Email

Email Security Warning!

When sending an email to the Comptroller of Maryland, do not include information such as your full social security number (use only the last 4 digits), bank account numbers, routing numbers, or any other sensitive information.

If you wish to send sensitive information, email a description of the issue (without the sensitive data), and let us know you have confidential information to send. We will reply back via an encrypted email account, which will have "#secure#" in the email subject. In reply to the secured email, you may then provide the additional detail, including the sensitive information.