Steve Burns
WMAL.com

ANNAPOLIS – (WMAL) Tax returns start rolling in to the Maryland Comptroller’s office today, the first day returns will be processed ahead of refunds being issued.

“We’ve been gearing up for this for six months, testing and retesting our system,” Comptroller Peter Franchot told WMAL. “We’re looking forward to getting two million Maryland families over $2.5 billion in refunds generally in the next six weeks.”

Franchot noted your 2017 taxes were not directly affected by the recently-passed tax legislation in Congress.

His office’s goal is to give refunds to filers about 2.1 business days after their electronic filing. However, around a quarter of those two million filers still do it the old-fashioned way, he said.

“(We get) 500,000 paper returns,” he said. “You’re not going to get a refund within 2.1 business days. I can pretty much state that for a fact, because someone has to open the reutrn up, and look at it, and sort it, and et cetera, et cetera.”

While some may think the old-school way is more secure than doing it digitally, Franchot said that is not the case.

“The security of the taxpayer is better when you file electronically, because we have very sophisticated algorithms that, should your tax information be stolen by someone and someone files a return in your name for a refund, we’re able ot identify most of those things electronically,” he said.

Franchot also recommended getting returns in on the earlier side, just to be safe, since most tax criminals send their fraudulent returns in as quickly as possible. He said they catch tens of thousands of tax fraud cases each year.

The state has also set up a help line: 1-800-MD-TAXES, along with 12 offices statewide.

“We are intending to answer 750,000 anticipated consumer calls,” Franchot said. “We anticipate being able, on average, to have a live, friendly, professional employee of my agency on the phone within 40 seconds.”

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