[Adopted 12-12-2007 by Ord. No. 116[1]]
[1]
Editor’s Note: This ordinance also provided for the
repeal of former Art. II, Emergency and Municipal Services Tax, adopted
11-9-1983 by Ord. No. 49, as amended.
This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Potter
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, and the Second Class
Township Code.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 6901 et seq. and
53 P.S. § 65101 et seq.
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 meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where
the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning:
The person or firm from time to time designated by motion
of the Board of Supervisors of the Township of Potter 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 the Township of Potter.
"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 carried income.
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.
Includes the singular and plural number and the male, female
and neuter genders.
Any person engaged in any occupation, trade or profession
within the jurisdictional, limits of Township of Potter whose total
earned income and net profits within the Township of Potter is greater
than $12,000 per calendar year.
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:
Any interest generated from monetary accounts or investment
instruments of the farming business;
Any gain on the sale of farming machinery;
Any gain on the sale of livestock held 12 months or more for
draft, breeding or dairy purposes; and
Any gain on the sale of other capital assets of the farm.
Any trade, profession, business or undertaking of any type,
kind or character, including services, domestic or other, carried
on or preformed within the jurisdictional limits of the Township of
Potter for which compensation is charged and/or received, whether
by salary, wages, commissions, fees or net profits for services rendered.
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.
The local services tax levied in this article.
A calendar year.
The Township of Potter hereby levies and imposes on every individual
engaging in an occupation within the jurisdictional limits of the
Township of Potter a tax in the amount of $52 per annum, beginning
the first day of January 2008 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
leveled by the Township of Potter.
A.
B.
The Township of Potter shall use no less than 25% of the funds derived
from the local services tax for emergency services.
A.
Each employer within Township of Potter and each employer situate
outside the Township of Potter who engages in business within the
Township of Potter is hereby charged with the duty of collecting the
tax from each of the employees engaged by the employer and performing
work for the employer within the Township of Potter. Each person subject
to the tax shall be assessed a pro rata share of the tax for each
payroll period in which the person is engaging in an occupation.
B.
The pro rata share of the tax assessed on the person for a payroll
period shall be determined by dividing the combined rate of the local
services tax levied for the calendar year by the number of payroll
periods established by the employer for the calendar year. For purposes
of determining the pro rata share, an employer shall round down the
amount of the tax collected each payroll period to the nearest one-hundredth
of a dollar.
C.
Employer collection of the local services tax shall be made on a
payroll-period basis for each payroll period, beginning with the first
payroll period in which the person is engaging in an occupation.
D.
No employer shall be held liable for failure to withhold the local
services tax or for the payment of the withheld tax money to a political
subdivision if the failure to withhold taxes arises from incorrect
information submitted by the employee as to the employee's place
or places of employment, the employee's principal office or where
the employee is principally employed.
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, and 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.
A.
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 the payroll
period, the priority of claim to collect the local services tax shall
be in the following order:
(1)
The political subdivision in which a person maintains his or her
principal office or is principally employed;
(2)
The political subdivision in which the person resides and works,
if the tax is levied by that political subdivision;
(3)
The political subdivision in which a person is employed and which
imposes the tax nearest in miles to the person's home.
B.
In the case of concurrent employment, an employer shall refrain from
withholding the local services tax if the employee provides:
(1)
A recent pay statement from a principal employer that includes the
name of the employer, the length of the payroll period and the amount
of local services tax withheld; and
(2)
A statement from the employee that the pay 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.
The situs of the tax shall be the place of employment on the first
day the person becomes subject to the tax during each payroll period.
It is the intent of this section that no person shall be subject to
the payment of the local services tax by more than one political subdivision
during each payroll period.
A.
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.
B.
The law requires municipalities and school districts who levy the
local services tax at a combined rate exceeding $10 to exempt any
person from the local services tax whose total earned income and net
profits from all sources within the political subdivision is less
than $12,000 for the calendar year in which the local services tax
is levied.
C.
Each political subdivision levying the local services tax shall exempt
the following persons 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.
D.
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 Township of Potter 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.
E.
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.
F.
Upon receipt of the exemption certificate and until otherwise instructed
by the collector of the tax for the Township of Potter, 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 Township of Potter that the
person has received earned income and net profits from all sources
within the Township of Potter 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 the Township of Potter
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 article.
G.
Employers shall not be responsible for investigating exemption certificates,
monitoring tax exemption eligibility or exempting any employee from
a local services tax.
H.
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 the Township of Potter but who engage
in any occupation within the Township of Potter 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 the Township of Potter.
Further, any individual engaged in an occupation within the Township
of Potter 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.
A.
It shall be the duty of the collector to accept and receive payments
of this tax and keep a record thereof showing the amount received
by him from each employer or self-employed person, together with the
date the tax was received. It shall be the duty of the collector to
accept and keep a record of the information submitted by employers
relating to the number of employees subject to the tax, the number
of employees exempt from the tax, the employee exemption certificates
and refunds of the tax paid to individuals and employers.
B.
The collector is hereby charged with the administration and enforcement
of this article and is hereby empowered to prescribe, adopt, promulgate
and enforce 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 made
in compliance with this article; and any payment alleged or found
to be incorrect or as to which overpayment is claimed or found to
have occurred. Any person aggrieved by any decision of the collector
shall have the right to appeal to the Court of Common Pleas of Beaver
County as in other cases provided.
C.
The collector is hereby authorized to examine the books and payroll
records of any employer in order to verify the accuracy of any return
made by an employer or, if no return was made, to ascertain the tax
due. Each employer is hereby directed and required to give the collector
the means, facilities and opportunity for such examination.
A.
In the event any of the tax under this article remains due or unpaid
30 days after the due date set forth above, the collector may sue
for the recovery of such tax due or unpaid, together with interest
and penalty.
B.
If for any reason the tax is not paid when due, interest at the rate
of 6% per annum on the amount of said tax, and an additional penalty
of 10%, shall be added to the flat rate of said tax for nonpayment
thereof. Where suit is brought for the recovery of this tax, the individual
liable therefor shall, in addition, be responsible and liable for
the costs of collection, including, but not limited to, attorneys'
fees.
Whoever makes any false or untrue statement on any return required
by this article, or 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.
