This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Lehigh
Township local services tax Ordinance."
This article is enacted under the authority of the Local Tax
Enabling Act, as amended by Act No. 7 of 2007.
The purpose of this article is to provide revenue for police,
fire and emergency services; road construction and maintenance; the
reduction of property taxes and for such other purposes as may be
specified for such tax from time to time by the laws of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
The following words and phrases, when used in this article,
shall have the meaning ascribed to them in this section, except where
the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning:
COLLECTOR
The person or firm, from time to time, designated by motion
of the Board of Supervisors of Lehigh Township to collect and administer
the provision of this article and collect the tax levied by this article.
Until changed by subsequent motion, the Collector shall be the same
person or firm last designated to collect the emergency and municipal
services tax for Lehigh Township.
EARNED INCOME
"Compensation" as determined under Section 303 of the Act
of March 4, 1971 (P.L. 6, No. 2), known as the "Tax Reform Code of
1971," and regulations in 61 Pa. Code Part I, Subpart B, Article
V (relating to personal income tax), not including, however, wages or compensation paid to individuals on active military service. Employee business expenses are allowable deductions as determined under Article
III of the Tax Reform Code of 1971. Any housing allowance provided to a member of the clergy shall not be taxable as earned income.
EMPLOYER
An individual, partnership, association, corporation, governmental
body, agency or other entity employing one or more persons on a salary,
wage, commission, fee or other compensation basis, including a self-employed
person.
HE, HIS OR HIM
Shall include singular and plural number and male, female
and neuter gender.
INDIVIDUAL
Any person engaged in any occupation, trade or profession
within the jurisdictional limits of Lehigh Township whose total earned
income and net profits within Lehigh Township are $12,000 or greater
per calendar year.
NET PROFITS
The net income from the operation of a business, profession, or other activity (except from corporations), determined under Section 303 of the Act of March 4, 1971 (P.L. 6, No. 2), known as the "Tax Reform Code of 1971," and regulations in 61 Pa. Code Part I, Subpart B, Article
V (relating to personal income tax). The term does not include income which is not paid for services provided and which is in the nature of earnings from an investment. For taxpayers engaged in the business, profession or activity of farming, the term shall not include:
A.
Any interest generated from monetary accounts or investment
instruments of the farming business;
B.
Any gain on the sale of farming machinery;
C.
Any gain on the sale of livestock held 12 months or more for
draft, breeding or dairy purposes; and
D.
Any gain on the sale of other capital assets of the farm.
OCCUPATION
Any trade, profession, business or undertaking of any type,
kind or character, including services, domestic or other, carried
on or performed within the jurisdictional limits of Lehigh Township
for which compensation is charged and/or received, whether by salary,
wages, commissions, fees or net profits for services rendered.
RESERVE COMPONENT OF THE ARMED FORCES
The United States Army Reserve, United States Navy Reserve,
United States Marine Corps Reserve, United States Coast Guard Reserve,
United States Air Force Reserve, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard
or the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
TAX
The local services tax levied in this article.
Lehigh Township hereby levies and imposes on every individual
engaging in an occupation within the jurisdictional limits of Lehigh
Township a tax in the amount of $52 per annum, beginning the first
day of January 2009 and continuing on a calendar basis annually thereafter,
until modified or repealed by subsequent ordinance. This tax is in
addition to all other taxes of any kind or nature heretofore levied
by Lehigh Township.
Employers are required to make and file a local services tax
quarterly return 30 days after the end of each quarter of a calendar
year. The local services tax quarterly return shall list the name,
address, social security number of the employee; the physical address
of the employee's place of employment; the number of payroll periods
for which the local services tax was withheld; and the amount of local
services tax being remitted for each employee.
Each employer shall use his employment and payroll records from
the first day of January to March 31 each year for determining the
number of employees from whom said tax shall be deducted and paid
over to the collector on or before April 30 of the same calendar year.
Supplemental reports shall be made by each employer on July 30, October
30 and January 31 for new employees as reflected on his employment
and payroll records from April 1 to June 30, July 1 to September 30
and October 1 to December 31, and payments on these supplemental reports
shall be made on July 30, October 30 and January 30, respectively.
The local services tax shall be no more than $52 on each person
for each calendar year, irrespective of the number of political subdivisions
within which a person may be employed.
A. Exemption. Any person whose total earned income and net profits from
all sources within the political subdivision is less than $12,000
for any calendar year in which the tax is levied is exempt from the
payment of the tax for that calendar year. In addition, the following
persons shall also be exempt from the local services tax:
(1) Any person who 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 a double or quadruple amputee or
has a service-connected disability declared by the United States Veterans'
Administration or its successor to be a total one-hundred-percent
permanent 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. A "reserve component of the Armed Forces" shall mean the United
States Army Reserve, United States Navy Reserve, United States Marine
Corps Reserve, United States Coast Guard Reserve, United States Air
Force Reserve, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard or the Pennsylvania
Air National Guard.
B. A person seeking to claim an exemption from the local services tax
may annually file an exemption certificate with the collector of the
tax for the political subdivision levying the tax and file a copy
of the certificate with the person's employer affirming that the person
reasonably expects to receive earned income and net profits from all
sources within the political subdivision of less than $12,000 in the
calendar year for which the exemption certificate is filed.
C. The exemption certificate shall have attached to it a copy of all
of the employee's last pay stubs or W-2 forms from employment within
the political subdivision for the year prior to the fiscal year for
which the employee is requesting to be exempted from the local services
tax.
D. Upon receipt of the exemption certificate and until otherwise instructed
by the collector of the tax for the political subdivision levying
the tax, the employer shall not withhold the tax from the person during
the calendar year or remainder of the calendar year for which the
exemption certificate applies. With respect to a person who claimed
an exemption from the local services tax, upon notification to an
employer by the person or by the collector of the tax for the political
subdivision that the person has received earned income and net profits
from all sources within that political subdivision equal to or in
excess of $12,000 in that calendar year or that the person is otherwise
ineligible for the tax exemption for that calendar year, or upon an
employer's payment to the person of earned income within that political
subdivision in an amount equal to or in excess of $12,000 in that
calendar year, an employer shall withhold the local services tax from
the person as follows:
(1) If a 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.
(2) The employer shall withhold from the person, for the first payroll
period after receipt of the notification under the above subsection,
a lump sum equal to the amount of the tax that was not withheld from
the person due to the exemption certificate filed by the person, plus
the per-payroll amount due for that first payroll period.
(3) 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.
(4) In the event the employment of a person subject to withholding of
the local services tax under this exception is severed in that calendar
year, the person shall be liable for any outstanding balance of tax
due, and the political subdivision levying the tax may pursue collection
under this act.
E. Employers shall not be responsible for investigating exemption certificates,
monitoring tax exemption eligibility or exempting any employee from
a local services tax.
F. Employers shall be responsible for retaining a copy of all exemption
certificates filed by employees within a given calendar year for a
minimum of three years. Employers who have failed to withhold the
local services tax from an employee or employees and do not have copies
of the employee exemption certificate or certificates will be held
responsible for the payment of the local services tax as if the tax
had been originally levied against the employer.
All self-employed individuals and individuals whose employer
is not required to withhold local taxes (certain state and federal
agencies) will be billed quarterly for the local services tax. The
full amount of tax must be paid by the date indicated on such billing.
If such taxpayer qualifies for a low-income exemption, the taxpayer
may complete the required exemption certificate or make application
for a refund of the tax paid.
All employers and self-employed individuals residing or having
their place of business outside Lehigh Township but who engage in
any occupation within Lehigh Township do, by virtue thereof, agree
to be bound by and subject themselves to the provisions, penalties
and regulations promulgated under this article with the same force
and effect as though they were residents of Lehigh Township. Further,
any individual engaged in an occupation within Lehigh Township and
an employee of a nonresident employer may, for the purpose of this
article, be considered a self-employed person, and in the event this
tax is not paid, the collector shall have the option of proceeding
against either the employer or employee for collection of this tax
as hereinafter provided.
Whoever makes any false or untrue statement on any return required
by this article, who refuses inspection of his books, records or accounts
in his custody and control in order to determine the number of employees
subject to this tax who are in his employment, or who fails or refuses
to file any return required by this article or fails or refuses to
pay the tax herein levied shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to
pay a fine of not more than $600 plus costs and, in default of payment
of said fine and costs, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment not
to exceed 30 days. It is further provided that the action to enforce
the fine and penalty herein provided may be instituted against any
person in charge of the business of any employer who has failed or
refused to file a return required by this article.