Diary of Comptroller Schaefer Intern, Erin Del Collo E

June 2005 -- Annapolis

I began my internship with a one week stay in the Office of Communications at the Comptroller of Maryland.   While in Communications, I worked on fact sheets and talking points for events Schaefer was attending.  These events included a graduation ceremony at Helping Up Mission, a program that assists homeless and drug-addicted men overcome their addiction and find permanent jobs and housing, and a ground breaking ceremony.  I also categorized comments from the free response portion of an employee survey for a future presentation that will be given to top administrators and the Comptroller. 

 Now I am working in the Estate Tax Unit of the Revenue Administration Division for at least 4 weeks. While I am actually working under the Estate Tax Unit, my cubicle is across the hall in the Legal Unit and I will also be consulting with members of the Legal Unit during the project.   I am researching how other states have dealt with "decoupling" from the federal estate tax and am working on creating new procedures for Maryland to audit their estate tax returns now that the Comptroller will not be able to rely on the IRS to do it for them.  I will contact states that have a filing threshold lower than the federal threshold.  One of these states will hopefully have audit/compliance procedures in place that Maryland will be able to emulate.  It has been quite interesting to find out how other states chose to respond to the changes at the federal level proscribed by EGTRRA . 

Some states, known as “pick-up” states because they simply take the allowable federal estate credit as their estate tax, chose to remain tied to the federal system and let the federal law take its course, resulting in higher filing thresholds and the complete phase out of the state estate tax credit in 2005.   Other states chose to “decouple” from one or both of these provisions.  These states, as well as those that were decoupled prior to EGTRRA, are the states that are of most value in my research.   I have contacted several states and have already received several promising responses.  While I’m sure the discussion of “decoupling” can seem quite complex (and it is), delving into this project is fascinating for me because it allows me to see how federal and state government intersect as well as to play a small role in fostering dialogue between states.