[Adopted 11-12-2007 by Ord. No. 2700]
This article shall be known as the "Whitehall
Township Local Services Tax Ordinance."
The following words and phrases, when used in
this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section,
except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
Salaries, wages, commissions, tips, bonuses, fees, gross
receipts, or any other earned income.
A person employed by an employer, a self-employed person
and a partner or member of any employer which is a partnership, limited
partnership, unincorporated association, institution, trust, corporation,
governmental agency or other unincorporated entity.
Any person, partnership, limited partnership, unincorporated
association, institution, trust, corporation, governmental agency,
and any other body engaged in business or situated in the Township
employing one or more employees engaged in an occupation other than
domestic service.
Shall include the singular and plural number and the masculine,
feminine and neuter gender.
Any person, male or female, engaged in any occupation within
the Township.
A military service connected disability declared by the United
States Veterans' Administration or its successor to be a total one-hundred-percent
disability.
Any trade, profession, business or undertaking of any type,
kind or character, including services, domestic or other, carried
on or performed within the Township for which compensation is charged
or received, whether by means of salary, wages, commission, fees for
services rendered or other means. An individual may have more than
one occupation.
The United States Army Reserve, United States Navy Reserve,
United States Marine Corps Reserve, United States Coast Guard Reserve,
the United States Air Force Reserve, the Pennsylvania Army National
Guard or the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
The Local Services Tax imposed hereunder.
Any natural person liable for the tax levied by this article.
Such period from January 1 to December 31, inclusive; a calendar
year.
The Township of Whitehall, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Whenever
the term is used in a geographical sense, it shall mean the area within
the limits of the Township of Whitehall, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
The Treasurer of the Township of Whitehall.
A local services tax is levied pursuant to this article for the period January 1 through December 31 for the purposes of supplementing the funds for police, fire and emergency services, road construction and/or maintenance; or reduction of property taxes. This tax is levied for the privilege of engaging in an occupation within the Township in the year after the effective date of this article and each following calendar year. It shall be paid over to the Treasurer as set forth herein. Each natural person who exercises such privilege for any length of time in any calendar year beginning with the year as of the effective date of this article shall pay a tax in the amount not to exceed $52 in accordance with the provisions of § 24-48.2.
A.
The following persons shall be exempt from the local
services tax:
(1)
Any person who has served in any war or armed
conflict in which the United States was engaged and is honorably discharged
or released under honorable circumstances from active service if,
as a result of military service, the person is blind, paraplegic or
double or quadruple amputee or has a service-connected disability.
(2)
Any person who serves as a member of a reserve
component of the armed forces and is called to active duty at any
time during the taxable year.
(3)
Any person whose total earned income and net
profits from all sources within the Township is less than $12,000
for the calendar year in which the local services tax is levied.
B.
A person seeking to claim an exemption from the tax
levied herein may annually file an exemption certificate with the
Township and with the person's employer affirming that the person
is eligible for exemption under this section. The exemption certificate
will be provided to the Treasurer through the person's employer for
the fiscal year for which the employee is requesting to be exempted
from the tax hereby levied. For those persons who reasonably expect
to receive earned income and net profits from all sources within the
Township of less than $12,000 in the calendar year for which the exemption
certificate is filed, the exemption certificate shall have attached
to it a copy of all the employee's last pay stubs or W-2 forms from
employment within the Township for the year prior to the fiscal year
for which the employee is requesting to be exempted. Upon receipt
of the exemption certificate by the Treasurer, the employer shall
not withhold the tax from the person during the year or the remainder
of the calendar year for which the exemption certificate applies.
Employers shall insure that the exemption certificate forms are readily
available to employees at all times and shall furnish each new employee
with the form at the time of hiring. If the person who claimed an
exemption for a given calendar year from the local services tax becomes
subject to the tax for the calendar year, the employer shall withhold
the tax for the remainder of that calendar year. The employer shall
withhold from the person, for the first payroll period after receipt
of notification of ineligibility for the exemption a lump sum equal
to the amount of tax that was not withheld from the person due to
the exemption claimed by the person plus the per payroll amount due
for that first payroll period. The amount of tax withheld per payroll
period for the remaining payroll periods in that calendar year shall
be the same amount withheld for other employees. In any event the
employment of a person subject to withholding of the tax is subsequently
severed in that calendar year, the person shall be liable for any
outstanding balance of tax due and the Township can pursue collection
under this article. It is the intention of this subsection that employers
shall not be responsible for investigating exemption certificates,
monitoring tax exempt eligibility or exempting any employee from the
local services tax.
A.
The Local Services Tax will be collected as a payroll
deduction from all employees and will be reported and remitted as
set forth herein. The tax must be deducted on a per payroll basis
and the employer shall be required to withhold the tax based on the
frequency of the employee's payroll schedule. This shall be determined
as the tax rate $52 divided by the number of payroll periods in the
year. In so far as the tax rate is $52, the effective rate of withholding
shall not exceed $1 per week. An individual shall be subject and liable
to the tax on a per payroll basis, i.e., only for those periods actually
employed. For purposes of this tax, sole proprietors and partners
shall be deemed to be employees.
B.
The situs of the tax shall be the place of employment
determined as of the day the person first becomes subject to the tax
during the calendar year. In the event a person is engaged in more
than one occupation, that is concurrent employment, or an occupation
which requires the person working in more than one political subdivision
during a payroll period, the priority of claim to collect the local
services tax shall be in the following order: first the political
subdivision in which a person maintains the person's principal office
or is principally employed; second, the political subdivision in which
the person resides and works, if the tax is levied by that political
subdivision and third, the political subdivision in which a person
is employed and which imposes the tax nearest in miles to the person's
home. In the case of concurrent employment, an employer shall refrain
from withholding the local services tax if the employee provides a
recent pay statement from a principal employer and includes the name
of the employer, the length of the payroll period and the amount of
the local services tax withheld and a statement from the employee
that the payment statement is from the employee's principal employer
and the employee will notify other employers of a change in principal
place of employment within two weeks of its occurrence.
C.
No person shall pay more than $52 in any calendar
year irrespective of the number of municipalities within which each
person may be employed. A municipality shall provide a taxpayer a
receipt of payment upon request by the Taxpayer.
Each employer within the Township and each employer
situated outside the Township but who engages in business within the
Township is hereby charged with the duty of collecting from each of
his employees performing an occupation for him within the Township,
the local services tax required to be paid by such employees for each
tax year. Each such employer is hereby authorized to deduct this tax
from the compensation paid to each such employee, whether said employee
is paid by salary, wages, commissions, or other means, and whether
all or only a part of such services are performed within the Township.
An employer who deducts the tax from an employee's compensation shall
deliver evidence of the deduction to the employee on a form furnished
to the employer by the Treasurer. If an employer shall fail to collect
the tax from an employee, he/she shall nonetheless be responsible
for the payment of the tax in full, as though the tax had originally
been levied against him/her.
Each employer described in § 24-48.5 of this article shall prepare and file periodic returns showing a computation of the local services tax required to be collected by the employer on forms supplied to him by the Treasurer.
A.
The returns shall be filed in accordance with the
following schedule:
(1)
A return shall be filed on or before April 15
of each tax year which calculates the local services tax required
to be collected by the employer from employees who first became subject
to the tax for such tax year between January 1 and March 31 of such
tax year, inclusive.
(2)
A return shall be filed on or before July 15
of each tax year which calculates the local services tax required
to be collected by the employer from employees who first became subject
to the tax for such tax year between April 1 and June 30 of such tax
year, inclusive.
(3)
A return shall be filed on or before October
15 of each tax year which calculates the local services tax required
to be collected by the employer from employees who first became subject
to the tax for such tax year between July 1 and September 31 of such
tax year, inclusive.
(4)
A return shall be filed on or before January
15 of each tax year which calculates the local services tax required
to be collected by the employer from employees who first became subject
to the tax for such tax year between October 1 and December 31 of
such tax year, inclusive.
B.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, no employer shall be required to file any return specified in Subsection A(1) through (4) if none of his employees first became subject to the tax for a given tax year during the period of the report and none of his employees need be reported on such return under the provisions of § 24-48.8 of this article.
C.
Any employer who discontinues business or ceases operation
before December 31 of any year during which this tax is in effect,
shall file the return hereinabove required and pay the tax to the
Treasurer within 15 days after discontinuing business or ceasing operations.
D.
The failure of any employer to deduct the tax shall
not relieve the employee from the duty to file a return and pay the
tax. Any employer who fails to deduct the tax as required by this
section, or who fails to pay such tax to the Treasurer, shall be liable
for such tax in full, as though the tax had originally been levied
against such employer.
E.
As to employees who present official receipts evidencing
prior payment of the tax imposed hereby either directly or by collection
through employers, the employer shall not deduct the tax but shall
maintain adequate records concerning such employees.
Payment of the amount required to be shown on any return required to be filed pursuant to § 24-48.6 of this article shall be due and payable on the due date of such return.
Each individual who shall have more than one
occupation within the Township during any given tax year shall be
subject to the payment of the local services tax for such tax year
only with respect to his principal occupation. Once an employer deducts
the tax due for any tax year from the compensation of an individual,
any other employer is authorized to not deduct the tax from such individual's
compensation upon presentation of the evidence of deduction form received
by the individual from the first employer. However, the other employer
must include the following information on his local services tax return
for the period when the individual first became his employee: the
individual's name, address and the name and account number of the
employer who issued the evidence of deduction forms.
All employers or self-employed individuals residing
or having their principal place of business outside of the Township,
but who perform services of any type or kind, or engage in any business,
occupation or profession within the Township, do by virtue thereof,
agree to be bound by and subject themselves to the provisions, penalties
and regulation promulgated under this article with the same force
and effect as if they were residents of the Township. In the event
that such an employer fails to collect and pay the local services
tax for any given tax year with respect to any of his employees who
are engaged in an occupation within the Township, the Township shall
have the option of collecting the tax from the employer or treating
the employees as self-employed persons and collecting the tax directly
from the employees.
A.
The Treasurer is charged with the duties of collecting
and receiving the taxes, additions and penalties imposed under this
article. It shall be his duty to keep a record showing the amount
received by him from each employer or self-employed person remitting
the tax and the date of such receipt. The Treasurer shall prescribe
and issue all forms necessary for the administration of the tax.
B.
The Treasurer is hereby charged with the administration
and enforcement of this article and is hereby authorized, with the
approval of the Board of Commissioners of the Township of Whitehall,
to prescribe, adopt and promulgate additional rules and regulations
relating to any matter pertaining to the administration and enforcement
of this article, including provisions for the examination of the payroll
records of any employer subject to this article, the examination and
correction of any return hereunder and any payments alleged or found
to be incorrect or as to which an overpayment is claimed or found
to have occurred.
C.
The Treasurer is hereby authorized to examine the
books, papers and records of any employer he believes may be subject
to collect or pay the tax imposed by this article in order to verify
the accuracy of any returns made, or to ascertain the tax due for
any period in which no return was made. Each employer is hereby obligated
to give the Treasurer the means, facilities and opportunity for such
an examination.
D.
The Treasurer is required to adopt regulations for
the processing of refund applications in the event a person qualified
for exemption from the tax, or has had in excess of the amount of
tax authorized withheld.
E.
Any person aggrieved by any decision of the Treasurer
shall have the right to appeal to the Tax Appeals Board, as described
in this chapter.
If for any reason, the local services tax imposed
under this article is not paid on or before the date it is due, the
amount of tax due shall be increased by 10% plus an additional 1%
per month or fractional part of a month from the date due until the
tax is paid in full.
A.
The Treasurer shall have the power in the name of
the Township to institute proceedings against any and all persons
who violate the provisions of this article. An action for the collection
of any local services tax shall not be instituted prior to 30 days
after the due date of said tax.
B.
If for any reason the local services tax is not paid
when due and suit is brought for the recovery of any such tax, and
any additions and penalties, the person liable therefor shall, in
addition, be liable for the costs of collection, and attorney fees.
Any person who shall make a false or untrue
statement on any return required under this article, or who shall
refuse inspection of books, records or accounts in his custody or
control setting forth the number of employees subject to the local
services tax, or who shall fail or refuse to file any return required
under this article, or who shall be the person in charge of the business
of any employer who has failed or refused to file any return required
under this article shall, upon conviction therefor, be sentenced to
pay a fine of not more than $600 plus costs and, in default of payment
of said fine and costs, to a term of imprisonment not to exceed 30
days.
Nothing contained in this article shall be construed
to empower the Township to levy and collect the local services tax
on any occupation to the extent that such action is not within the
taxing power of the Township under the Constitution and laws of the
United States and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. If the local services
tax, or any portion thereof, imposed upon any person under the provisions
of this article shall be held by any court of competent jurisdiction
to be in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States
or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as to such individual, the decisions
of the court shall not affect or impair the Township's right to impose
taxes, or the validity of the taxes so imposed, upon other persons
as herein provided.
Except as set forth hereafter, all ordinances
or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
Nothing herein shall be construed to repeal the imposition and collection
of an occupational privilege tax, plus applicable penalties and interest,
for calendar year 2006 and all prior calendar years, or of an emergency
and municipal services tax for calendar year 2007, as the same existed
prior to this amendment.
The tax imposed by this article shall be effective
on January 1, 2008, and all calendar years thereafter unless repealed
or modified by ordinance of the Township Commissioners.
In all other respects, Chapter 24, Part 4, Taxation, of the Code of Ordinances of the Township of Whitehall remain as heretofore enacted, ordained and amended, which said chapter, as amended, is hereby reenacted in its entirety herein.
