Sec. 1. 36 MRSA §5122, sub-§2, ¶J, as corrected by RR 1997, c. 2, §59, is amended to read:

J. Any amount constituting a qualified withdrawal from an account established pursuant to Title 20-A, chapter 417-E and used for paying higher education expenses; and

Sec. 2. 36 MRSA §5122, sub-§2, ¶K, as reallocated by RR 1997, c. 2, §60 and affected by §61, is amended to read:

K. For income tax years beginning on or after January 1, 1997, all items of income, gain, interest, dividends, royalties and other income of a financial institution subject to the tax imposed by section 5206, to the extent that those items are passed through to the taxpayer for federal income tax purposes, including, if the financial institution is an S corporation, the taxpayer's pro rata share and, if the financial institution is a partnership or limited liability company, the taxpayer's distributive share. A subtraction may not be made under this paragraph for:

(1) Income of the taxpayer earned on interest-bearing or similar accounts of the taxpayer at a financial institution as a customer of that financial institution;

(2) Any dividends or other distributions with respect to a taxpayer's ownership interest in a financial institution; and

(3) Any gain recognized on the disposition by the taxpayer of an ownership interest in a financial institution.; and

Sec. 3. 36 MRSA §5122, sub-§2, ¶L is enacted to read:

L.__Forty percent of any state and federal retirement pension benefits, to the extent included in federal adjusted income.

Sec. 4. Application. This Act applies to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2001.

SUMMARY

This bill provides an income tax exemption of 40% of state and federal retirement pension benefits in order to create some parity with social security recipients, whose benefits are only partially taxable.