[Adopted 10-7-2009 by Ord. No. 2009-04][1]
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also repealed former Art. I,
Occupational Privilege Tax, adopted 11-19-1973 by Ord. No. 47, as
amended.
This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Local Services
Tax Ordinance."
This article is enacted under the authority of Act 511 of 1965,
as amended, known as the Local Tax Enabling Act, 53 P.S. § 6924.101
et seq.
As used in this article, unless the context clearly indicates
a different meaning, the following words shall have the meanings set
forth below:
The twelve-month period beginning January 1 and ending December
31.
A person designated by the governing body of the Township
of East Cocalico to collect and administer the tax.
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"[1] and regulations 61 Pa. Code Pt. 1 Subpt. B, Art. V (relating
to personal income tax) not including, however, wages or compensation
paid to individuals on active military service.
A person, partnership, association, corporation, institution,
governmental body or unit or agency, or any other entity employing
one or more persons for a salary, wage, commission or other compensation,
including self-employed individuals.
An exemption certificate substantially in the form of the
uniform certificate prescribed by the Pennsylvania Department of Community
and Economic Development affirming that the person reasonably expects
to receive earned income and/or net profits from all sources within
the municipality of less than $12,000 in the calendar year for which
the exemption certificate is filed, which exemption certificate has
attached to it a copy of all of the employee's last pay stubs or W-2
forms from employment within the municipality for the year prior to
the calendar year for which the employee is requesting to be exempted
from the tax. In addition to the income exemptions, provision has
been made for certain military exemptions.
Any person, male or female, engaged in any occupation, trade
or profession within the boundaries of East Cocalico Township.
Emergency services; road construction and/or maintenance;
reduction of property taxes; and property tax relief through implementation
of a homestead and farmstead exclusion in accordance with 53 Pa. C.S.A.,
Ch. 85, Subch. F.
The Township of East Cocalico.
The net income from the operation of a business, profession,
or other activity, except 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,"[2] and regulations in 61 Pa. Code Pt. I, Subpt. B, Art. 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 earnings generated from any monetary accounts or investment
instruments of the farming business;
Gain on the sale of farm machinery;
Gain on the sale of livestock held 12 months or more for draft,
breeding or dairy purposes; and
Gain on the sale of other capital assets of the farm.
A person, partnership, association or other entity domiciled
outside of the municipality.
Any livelihood, job trade, profession, business or enterprise
of any kind, including services, domestic or otherwise, for which
any earned income and/or net profits are charged and received from
sources within the municipality.
Any county, city, borough, incorporated town, township, school
district, vocational school district and county institutional district.
The calendar year before the current year.
The Local Services Tax in the amount of $52.
Any natural person liable for the tax levied by § 199-4 of this article.
The municipality hereby levies on every individual engaging
in an occupation within the jurisdictional limits of the municipality
a tax in the amount of $52 per annum, beginning the first day of January,
2010, and continuing on a calendar basis annually thereafter, until
modified or repealed by a subsequent ordinance.
The tax levied by § 199-4 shall not be imposed upon the following persons:
A.
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.
B.
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 calendar
year. For purposes of this subsection, 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.
C.
Any person whose total earned income and/or net profits from all
sources within the municipality is less than $12,000 for the calendar
year in which the tax is levied.
D.
Each employer shall ensure that exemption certificate forms are readily
available to employees.
E.
A person seeking exemption from the tax under this section must annually
file an exemption certificate with the employer and the collector.
[Amended 10-5-2011 by Ord. No. 2011-06; 11-7-2012 by Ord. No.
2012-06]
A.
Every employer shall, within 15 days after first becoming an employer,
register with the collector the employer's name, address and such
other information as the collector may require. Failure to register
in a timely manner does not relieve the employer of the requirements
of this article.
B.
As to each taxpayer employed for any length of time during any payroll
period of an employer during the calendar year, each employer shall
deduct a pro rata share of the tax from the earned income payable
to the taxpayer with respect to such payroll period. The pro rata
share of the tax assessed on a taxpayer for a payroll period shall
be determined by dividing the rate of the tax ($52) 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 of the tax, an employer shall round down the amount of
tax deducted for each payroll period to the nearest one-hundredth
of a dollar.
C.
Each employer shall file a return on a form prescribed by the collector,
and pay the collector the full amount of all such taxes deducted during
a calendar quarter within 30 days after the end of the calendar quarter.
A tax return must be filed for each calendar quarter, regardless of
whether withholdings were completed or any tax liability exists.
D.
Seasonal employees who are regularly on the payroll of an employer,
or seasonal self-employed persons, who only work a portion of each
year are required to pay $52 each, irrespective of how many pay periods
they work. The amount deducted from a seasonal employee's pay should
be adjusted to account for the fact that he is not receiving a paycheck
every pay period. (For example, if an employee regularly works only
six months of the year, and pay periods occur every other week, $4
rather than $2 should be deducted from that employee's pay during
each period that he is paid.)
E.
If, for any reason, an employee's local services tax withholding,
or a self-employed person's LST submission, is short of the required
total of $52 at the last pay period of the calendar year, the discrepancy
should be made up in that last pay period.
F.
Within 30 days of the end of the last quarter of the calendar year,
each employer, and each self-employed person, shall file an end-of-year
reconciliation with the tax collector, listing all employees from
whom the local services tax was turned over for that year and the
total remitted for each employee. For those employees who total remittance
is not $52, an explanation must be provided for the discrepancy. The
only acceptable reasons for not submitting $52 in total for an employee
are:
G.
Failure to file an end-of-year reconciliation, or a properly documented exemption certificate in lieu of tax payments, will result in written reminder from the tax collector to be issued in February of the following year. If the report or certificate is not filed within 30 days of the mailing of said reminder, fines and penalties will be assessed as described in § 199-11 of this article.
H.
Any employer who discontinues business or ceases operation during
the calendar year, shall within 15 days after discontinuing business
or ceasing operation, file the return hereinabove required and pay
the tax to the collector.
I.
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 collector, shall be liable for such tax in
full, as though the tax had originally been levied against such employer.
No employer shall be liable for failure to deduct the tax if the failure
to deduct the tax 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.
J.
Each self-employed person shall make payments to the tax collector
of four quarterly payments of $13 each with each remittance to occur
within 30 days of the end of each quarter.
K.
Priority of withholding.
(1)
The tax shall be withheld at the place of employment on the first
day the person becomes subject to the tax during each payroll period.
(2)
In the event a person is engaged in more than one occupation, i.e.
concurrent employment, or an occupation which requires the person
working in more than one political subdivision during the payroll
period, the priority to withhold the tax shall be in the following
order:
(a)
The political subdivision in which a person maintains his or
her principal office or is principally employed;
(b)
The political subdivision in which the person resides and works,
if the tax is levied by that political subdivision;
(c)
The political subdivision in which a person is employed and
which imposes the tax nearest in miles to the person's home.
L.
The employer shall not deduct the tax but shall maintain adequate records concerning the employees in the cases described in Subsection L(1) and (2) of this section.
(1)
It is the intent of this section that no person shall be subject
to the payment of the tax in more than one municipality during each
payroll period. No taxpayer shall be required to pay more than $52
in total during the calendar year. In the case of concurrent employment,
an employer shall refrain from withholding the tax, if the employee
provides:
(a)
A recent pay statement from a principal employer that includes
the name of the employer, the length of the payroll periods and the
amount of the tax withheld; and
(b)
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.
(2)
In the case of an employee claiming the exemption set forth in § 199-5, if:
(a)
The employee has provided an exemption certificate to the employer;
(b)
The collector has not otherwise instructed the employer;
(c)
The employer has not received notification from the person who
claimed the exemption or from the collector that the person has received
earned income and/or net profits from all sources within the municipality
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; and
(d)
The employer has not paid to the person earned income within
the municipality an amount equal to or in excess of $12,000 in that
calendar year.
M.
If a person has claimed exemption from the tax under § 199-5 for a given calendar year but either: a) the employer has received notification from the person who claimed the exemption or from the collector that the person has received earned income and/or net profits from all sources within the municipality 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 b) the employer has paid to the person earned income within the municipality an amount equal to or in excess of $12,000 in that calendar year, then the employer shall withhold the tax for the remainder of that calendar year and the employer shall withhold from the person, for the first payroll period after receipt of the notification described in clause a) above or for the first payroll period after payments described in clause b) above have been made, a lump sum equal to the amount of tax what was not withheld from the person due to the tax 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 the event the employment of a person subject to withholding of the tax under this subsection is subsequently severed in that calendar year, the person shall be liable for any outstanding balance of tax due and the collector may pursue collection under this article.
N.
Each employer within the municipality, and each employer located
outside the municipality who engages in business within the municipality,
is hereby charged with the duty of collecting the tax from each of
its employees performing work for the employer within the municipality.
Both resident and nonresident taxpayers shall, by virtue of
engaging in an occupation within the municipality, be subject to the
tax and the provisions of this article.
The collector, on behalf of the municipality, shall collect
and receive the taxes, interest, fines and penalties imposed by this
article, and shall maintain records showing interest, fines and penalties
imposed by this article, and shall maintain records showing the amounts
received and the dates such amounts were received. The collector shall
prescribe and issue all forms necessary for the administration of
the tax. The collector and any designated agents may examine the records
of any employer or of any taxpayer in order to ascertain the tax due
or verify the accuracy of any return.
The municipality or its collector of the tax may collect unpaid
taxes from the taxpayer or employer owing such taxes by suit as provided
for by Act 511 of 1965, as amended, known as "The Local Tax Enabling
Act."[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 6924.101 et seq.
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 1/2 of 1% of the amount of unpaid tax for each month or
fraction thereof during which the tax remains unpaid, shall be added
and collected. Where suit is brought for the recovery of any such
tax, the taxpayer or employer liable for the tax shall, in addition,
be liable for the costs of collection and the interest herein imposed.
A.
Any taxpayer or employer who fails, neglects, or refuses to make
a return required, any employer who fails, neglects or refuses to
register or to pay the tax deducted from employees, or fails, neglects,
or refuses to deduct or withhold the tax from employees, taxpayer
or employer who refuses to permit the collector to examine the books,
records, and papers, and taxpayer or employer who knowingly makes
any incomplete, false or fraudulent return or attempts to do anything
whatsoever to avoid the full disclosure of the amount of tax due in
order to avoid the payment of the tax imposed shall, upon conviction
thereof before the district magistrate, be sentenced to pay a fine
of not more than $500 for each offense, and costs, and, in default
of said fines and costs, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding
30 days.
B.
The failure of the taxpayer or employer to receive or procure forms
required for filing the required return does not excuse the taxpayer
or employer from the filing requirement.
A.
Any person who has overpaid the tax may obtain a refund by making
a written application for a refund to the collector no later than
one calendar year after payment of the tax or three years after the
due date for payment of the tax, whichever is later, and satisfactorily
proving to the collector that the taxpayer is entitled to the refund.
Refunds made within 75 days of a refund request or 75 days after the
last day the employer is required to remit the tax to the collector
for the last quarter of the calendar year, whichever is later, shall
not be subject to interest imposed under 53 Pa.C.S. § 8426.
A refund shall be provided only for an amount overpaid in a calendar
year that exceeds $1.
B.
Refund requests must be submitted on the form approved by the collector.
It should be noted that incomplete refund requests will be deferred
until the missing or incomplete information is provided. Refunds in
the deferred status are not subject to the payment of interest requirement.
The collector shall provide a taxpayer a receipt of payment
of the tax upon request by the taxpayer. A stamped self-addressed
envelope shall be furnished by the taxpayer if a receipt via return
mail is desired.
The tax shall not apply to any person not within the taxing
power of the municipality under the Constitution of the United States
and the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
This article shall continue in force from one calendar year
to another without annual reenactment.
