These organizations provide Maryland with the most significant bioinformatics capabilities in the world. Growing information technology presence Established federal agencies in Maryland, such as NSA, NASA and NIST spawned much of the state's early technology enterprise and helped attract a core of scientists and engineers and other supporting infrastructure. Today Maryland is home to a large and growing cluster of software services, electronics and telecommunications firms, including a critical mass of photonics organizations. Maryland ranks 4th nationwide by employment in defense electronics manufacturing, 5th in software services, and 11th in communications equipment manufacturing. Supporting the growth of information technology firms in the state are a vast number of venture capital resources, business incubators, and university based research institutes, such as the Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering at the University of Maryland.
Reasonable business costs Maryland's business tax structure is fair and consistent.
The corporate tax rate is a reasonable 7 percent, which has remained unchanged for decades. The state has no corporate franchise tax or gross receipts tax on manufacturers. Sales and use tax is 5 percent statewide, with numerous exemptions for businesses in the state. According to a recent survey, workers' compensation costs for manufacturers in Maryland rank 6th lowest nationally. Maryland's personal taxes are also reasonable, ranking 13th lowest in state and local government tax revenue as a percentage of personal income.