Apr. 05, 2017
HARRISBURG – Local tax collectors take on a great responsibility and work many hours ensuring proper collection of taxes; however, with little clarity in current law as to best practices, mistakes and misuse of the system can occur. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh/Berks) has crafted legislation approved by the House of Representatives to correct current oversights in the law.
The current Local Tax Collection Law does not specify how taxes are to be paid, so it is left to individual tax collectors to determine how they want checks made out for the payment of taxes and what account the tax money is to be deposited. This means a tax collector can have a taxpayer write a check in only the tax collector’s name and deposit it his or her personal bank account, whether intentionally or not.
Mackenzie’s
House Bill 16 would require checks to be made payable to the name of the tax collector along with the office, title, or position and be deposited into a separate bank account only used for tax money. The practice of making checks payable to only an individual’s name would be prohibited.
“By changing how checks from taxpayers are made out and ensuring the money goes into the correct account, I believe this legislation will give municipalities and taxpayers an added layer of protection by ensuring their tax dollars go where they are intended,” said Mackenzie.
“Most of our state’s tax collectors are hard-working citizens who do an outstanding job; however, we have had instances over the years in which some tax collectors have taken advantage of the current law and used it to steal money from the people they are supposed to be serving,” said Mackenzie. “Some examples of this type of crime are the $1.4 million stolen in Baden Borough in Beaver County between 2007 and 2015, and $300,000 stolen from Spring Garden Township in York County between 1995 and 2009 from tax collectors. My legislation would help prevent this type of criminal activity from taking place.”
House Bill 16 now goes to the state Senate.
Representative Ryan Mackenzie
134th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Tricia Lehman
717.772.9840
tlehman@pahousegop.com
RepMackenzie.com /
Facebook.com/RepMackenzie