A person operating and conducting a trade or business must contact the local Enterprise Zone administrator to see if the particular property meets certain requirements. The local Zone administrator will explain to interested persons the specific requirements in a given Zone. The Enterprise Zone law itself establishes two minimum alternative requirements and also provides that local Zones may establish additional or special requirements. [See Title 9-103 Tax-Property Article; Art. 41, Section 266KK-4 Annotated Code of Maryland]. In order for a business to qualify for the property tax credit, it must satisfy one of the two specific statutory requirements as well as any further requirements established by the local Zone. The two specific requirements are that business must either (1) make an investment in capital improvements, or (2) hire new employees. Of course, it should be noted here that if the business qualifies for the credit in only the second way by hiring new employees, the amount of the property tax credit will be small since the increase in assessment will not be large due to a lack of capital investment.

The local Zone administrator can explain if the particular Zone also has established its own additional requirements. For example, some Zones have established the requirements that a business must be hiring at least five new employees and that the jobs must be in certain industries.

Once the local Zone administrator determines that a property qualifies for the property tax credit, the administrator certifies this finding in writing to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, which in turn calculates the amount of assessment "eligible" for the credit for eligible properties.

The law states that the credit shall be granted to the "owner" of a qualified property. In cases where a lessee makes the capital improvements or hires new employees, the lessee should make a contractual provision with the owner of the qualified property regarding receipt of the property tax credit.