PGAMA Member Spotlight

Lay off continued...
...Although details of the plan are not on the Unemployment Insurance website, it turns out that Maryland does have a work sharing plan available if both the employer and the employees wish to take advantage of the program. Though each affected employee's benefits would need to be calculated prior to any payment, the plan works like this: You can reduce the hours of all the employees in a work unit by from %10 to %50 and then each affected employee would get that % of their predetermined benefit paid by the State. (i.e., If you reduce the work force hours by 20%, each affected employee could get 20% of the weekly benefit he or she would get if they were on full layoff. Using an employee with maximum benefits of $380/wk plus up to $40/wk for dependent assistance an employee could get as much as $84 (20% of $420) during this reduced time employment. The dependent(s) benefit does not apply once the maximum benefit of $380/wk has been reached. It would only be available to someone is entitled to less than the maximum benefit. So the maximum benefit for those who have reached the $380/wk mark would be $76/day. To get an application and a brochure for work sharing unemployment benefits call Ms. Miller at 410-767-2671.

Zancan continued...
"The Association just saved me $10,000", is how member Ray Zancan began his phone call to PGAMA on September 3, 2008. A week earlier Ray, owner of Zancan Press, Inc, called the PGAMA office to ask about a Maryland Property Tax bill for $10,000 that he received from Prince Georges County. Art Stowe, told him his call was timely because if the tax was being charged on his printing equipment, he had until Sept 2 (Sept 1 was a holiday) to file a manufacturer's exemption form with the State, that would be effective for 2008. He went to the State Tax Dept. on Sept 2 and filed the form and was given relief from the tax bill.

In addition to thanking us for saving him $10,000, Ray asked for a recommendation for an accounting firm. His accountant had not only missed this exemption, but when Ray told him about the bill, the accountant sort of shrugged it off and said Ray might have to pay it that year. Ray, like every other small printer, said that he could not afford to waste $10,000. We recommended he contact Bart Kruptnick of Margolis/Becker, a PGAMA member who specializes in printing industry clients and knows about the exemptions available to manufacturers.

To get these types of benefits for your company, go here.