This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Local Services
Tax Ordinance."
As used in this article, the following words shall have the
following meanings:
EMPLOYER
Any person, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability
company, association, institution, trust, corporation, governmental
agency, or any other body engaged in business or situated in the Borough
of Bellevue employing one or more employees in any occupation.
OCCUPATION
Includes any livelihood, job, trade, profession, business
or enterprise of any kind, including services, domestic or other,
for which any compensation or income is received.
RATE
"Combined rate" shall mean the aggregate annual rate of the
local services tax levied by a school district and a municipality
located in whole or in part within the school district.
TAX
The tax levied by this article.
TAX COLLECTOR
The person or persons or public employee or firm or agency
appointed by the Town Council of the Borough of Bellevue to collect
and administer the local services tax levied by this article.
TAXPAYER
Any natural person liable for the tax levied by this article.
A tax for police, fire and emergency services, road construction
and/or maintenance, or reduction of property taxes purposes in the
amount of $52 is hereby levied upon the privilege of engaging in an
occupation within the Borough of Bellevue for the period commencing
January 1, 2008, and ending December 31, 2008, and for each subsequent
year from the effective date of this article. Each natural person
who exercises such privilege for any length of time in any year beginning
with January 1, 2008, shall pay the tax in accordance with the provisions
hereof.
Every individual shall be subject to the payment of the tax
on his/her principal occupation, and his/her principal employer shall
deduct the tax. Evidence of the deduction must be furnished to the
secondary employer, who shall not make any additional deduction but
must notify the Tax Collector of the employee's name, address,
account number and original deduction.
Both resident and nonresident taxpayers shall, by virtue of
engaging in an occupation within the Borough of Bellevue, be subject
to the tax.
The Tax Collector shall collect, by suit or otherwise, all taxes,
interest, costs, fines and penalties due under this article and unpaid.
If for any reason any tax is not paid when due, interest at the rate
of 6% per year on the amount of unpaid tax and an additional penalty
of 1/2 of 1% of the amount of unpaid tax for each month or fraction
of month during which the tax remains unpaid shall be added and collected.
Whenever suit is brought for the recovery of unpaid tax, the taxpayer
shall, in addition, be liable for the costs of collection including
reasonable attorneys' fees, as well as for interest and penalties.
The Tax Collector may accept payment under protest of the tax claimed
by the Borough of Bellevue in any case where any person disputes the
Borough of Bellevue's claim for tax. If a court of competent
jurisdiction thereafter decides that there has been overpayment to
the Tax Collector, the Tax Collector shall refund the amount of the
overpayment to the person who paid under protest.
The Tax Collector, before entering upon his official duties,
shall give and acknowledge a bond to the Borough of Bellevue in such
an amount which the Town Council of the Borough of Bellevue may deem
sufficient.
The Tax Collector shall receive such compensation for his services
and expenses as shall be determined by the Town Council of the Borough
of Bellevue from time to time.
Any person who violates any provision of this article or any
regulation adopted pursuant to it shall, upon conviction thereof before
any Magisterial District Judge, be subject to a fine of not more than
$500 or, in default of payment of such fine, shall be subject to imprisonment
in the Allegheny County Jail for a period not to exceed 30 days.
This tax shall not apply to any subject of tax or person not
within the taxing power of the Borough of Bellevue, under the Constitution
of the United States and the Laws and Constitution of Pennsylvania.
If a final decision of a court of competent jurisdiction holds any
provision of this article to be illegal or unconstitutional, the other
provisions of this article shall remain in full force and effect.
The intention of the Town Council of the Borough of Bellevue is that
the provisions of this article shall be severable and that this article
would have been adopted if any such illegal or unconstitutional provisions
had not been included.
This article shall become effective January 1, 2008, and continue
in force on a calendar-year basis thereafter without reenactment until
such time as the Town Council of the Borough of Bellevue shall change
the rate of the tax or by appropriate ordinance repeal said tax.