PROVIDENCE — Bank of America plans to lay off 121 employees at a facility in Lincoln that benefited from a state tax break in 2005.

The bank would not answer questions about the layoffs. In a mandatory notice filed with the town, the bank attributed them to its merger with Merrill Lynch, the big financial services firm, on Jan. 1.

The notice said the layoffs are effective March 10, and that the bank began telling employees on Jan. 8.

The bank said it is “identifying overlap and finding efficiencies within our operations,” and “aligning our cost structure in response to the current economic environment.”

The notice said that the 121 employees work at the bank’s Investment Center and Premier Relationship Center, both at 670 George Washington Highway in Lincoln. It said the layoffs are permanent, and that the employees are not represented by a union. It identified the workers as “associates,” and said 100 were at Premier and the other 21 at the investment center.

“Eligible associates are offered career transition resources as well as severance pay and benefits,” the notice said.

In March 2005, the state Economic Development Corporation approved $2 million in state sales tax breaks for the bank in return for investing $59.5 million in the state and creating 955 new jobs. The 7-percent sales tax the state waived would have applied to building materials and equipment to expand three Rhode Island facilities: the Lincoln one and others in Providence and East Providence.

The EDC said at the time that it expected the jobs would pay between $23,000 and $85,000, with most of them paying $23,000, to answer customer calls to the bank.

Andy Cutler, a spokesman for the development corporation, said that the bank complied with the terms the state attached to the tax break.

The bank would not discuss the number of employees at the Lincoln facility. In 2005, state officials said the company was planning to hire 100 new workers in Lincoln, and that the increase would double the number of employees there. The Lincoln center had been part of Fleet Bank’s Quick & Reilly brokerage arm.

Cutler said companies getting tax breaks are required to follow through on their promises, and that Bank of America has done so. It was supposed to create 955 new jobs within three years, and he said it hired more than that — 1,168.

Cutler also said that William F. Hatfield, the bank’s market president for Rhode Island, called EDC Executive Director J. Michael Saul “to assure him of BoA’s commitment to Rhode Island.”

blandis@projo.com