Maryland comptroller failed to pursue $600 million, audit finds

Luke Parker, Baltimore Sun on Sep 16, 2026

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BALTIMORE — The Maryland comptroller’s office failed to use available enforcement measures to pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in delinquent taxes from individuals and businesses since 2022, according to a state audit released Wednesday.

The 33-page report by the Department of Legislative Services examined the collection and monitoring practices of the comptroller’s Compliance Division and Office of Law and Oversight.

The audit found that the comptroller’s office had not used all of its collection methods to retrieve more than $600 million in unpaid taxes or investigate more than 6,500 “questionable” returns, among other deficiencies.

According to the comptroller’s General Accounting Division, as of Wednesday, the state has collected more than $5.8 billion in individual income taxes this fiscal year and more than $667 million in corporate income taxes.

The audit said the amounts at issue are “significant” as unpaid taxes have increased by more than half, from $1.03 billion in fiscal 2022 to $1.58 billion in fiscal 2025. The findings also come as Maryland lawmakers and Gov. Wes Moore’s administration prepare for the General Assembly session in January while facing a projected $3.1 billion budget shortfall.

Sen. Jim Rosapepe, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, said Wednesday that he had read “lots of audits” during his career in the public and private sectors.

After reviewing the report, Rosapepe, vice chair of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, described its findings as minor and procedural, calling them “small potatoes.”

“Any multi-billion-dollar system, whether it’s a private company or a government agency, is going to have people who don’t pay the bills sometimes,” he said. “I think there’s less there than meets the eye.”

A spokesperson in the comptroller’s office told The Baltimore Sun that the agency appreciated the audit’s recommendations “on strengthening and streamlining government functions” and generally agreed with its analysis.

In its formal response, the comptroller’s office disputed the department’s characterization of its new cloud-based tax system and warned against assuming that the “questionable” returns were “confirmed fraudulent leads.” The office said the system was improving enforcement capabilities, including by making it easier to garnish wages.

Wage garnishment requires employers to withhold part of a worker’s paycheck and send it to the state to satisfy a debt. The audit’s first finding focused on this practice.

The audit found that the comptroller’s Office of Law and Oversight, which receives about $51 million in funding, did not consistently use wage garnishments or bank attachments, another enforcement action, against thousands of taxpayers who owed back taxes.

As of February, about 18,300 delinquent accounts with a combined outstanding balance of $251.7 million were not subject to those collection actions. About 1,800 of those taxpayers earned more than $50,000 in subsequent years and collectively owed $25.5 million in unpaid taxes, the report said.

The comptroller’s office wrote that it uses collection methods other than wage garnishments and bank attachments. The most effective, it said, is referring delinquent accounts to the state Motor Vehicle Administration, which can prevent taxpayers from renewing their driver’s licenses until they pay their debts.

The office credited that strategy with helping produce a record $679 million in personal income tax collections during the past fiscal year.

Other audit findings, some of which the comptroller’s office acknowledged, involved managing delinquent payment plans, overseeing compliance programs and monitoring suspended accounts.

Rosapepe noted that the audit period began in fiscal 2022 and that some of the problems predated Comptroller Brooke Lierman’s administration. He praised Lierman’s leadership, saying she had been tasked with modernizing the office and tying up "loose ends” from the coronavirus pandemic.

“There are constructive issues that were raised, and the comptroller’s office responded constructively,” Rosapepe said.

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