That's probably your school / municipal tax, so yes.

Yes, you can probably do it online but you’ll be using box 19 on your w2 for it, for reference. Box 16 for wages box 19 for local taxes taken out.

It's a nuisance tax, but sadly if you don't do it they'll garnish your wages or threaten imprisonment.

Yes.

OMG yes. They will haunt you for the rest of your life. You will be assessed huge penalties that increase rapidly.

Even when you pay, make an extra copy to send back certified asap. I think they go thru past years records and re-bill.

My employer took out the correct taxes. They got their money, they KNOW they got your money. Just grift from the company.

They are relentless. My 11 year old paperboy didn’t have to file fed/state taxes. In this case the money wasn’t deducted and they expected payment. 30 years later I am still bitter.

Yes. Such a pain in the ass.

I have two jobs and because of that payrolls wants to make me pay that $52 a year tax twice, when technically you only have to pay it once.

However, I can't submit a paycheck that shows I am paying it from my full-time job until I actually get paid in the new year. So every year both of my jobs withdrawal $2 towards this tax before I can submit a pay stub to my part-time job.

At tax time I fill out the paperwork and request my $2 refund, as the year prior I paid $54. I get some enjoyment out of knowing that keystone probably spends significantly more than $2 to get me my refund.

It's the little things in life.

Yes, Federal, State, and Local taxes are all separate filings and required.

I know how you feel. My locality sent me to collections for taxes I already paid. Thankfully I keep anything tax related for 5 or more years. Without it, I would of had to pay another 300 dollars.

Your local municipality outsourced their tax collection to a private company, which is what that is. So yes, you need to file your local taxes with them.

I’ve been retired six years. Got one at year 5.

yes

it's not a nuisance tax. it provides a substantial amount of revenue for local municipalities to provide services for their residents.

These people are horrible trying to deal with. This was like 5 years ago they actually were able to garnish my pay the 1st week of the year for like $150 for apparently missing it a few years prior because I moved. The person said on the phone “we don’t make mistakes.”

Yes.

It's a nuisance! If they want my tax money, take it out of my check as everyone else does.

They do? At least around here (Allegheny)they do. And then you file each year to make sure you are squared away. Unless you are self employed but that's the same for state and federal SE too.

Here you go. It's a state law that most employers must withhold local earned income tax. https://dced.pa.gov/local-government/local-income-tax-information/local-withholding-tax-faqs/

I believe they do here also. But it's never enough. When I lived in Centre County I always got a nice local return. But not in blair Co.

They need to withhold the correct amount or else they're violating the law. You could have other earned income not from an employer that you have to pay quarterly separately. Basically this is usually from self-employment activities.

It is also municipality based and not county-based as the tax rates are set by municipalities and the earned income tax goes to the municipalities, not the counties.

I double-checked my paystub and they do take it out. But I always end of owing money. Never happened in centre County.

Also, I misunderstood OP's post. I was referring to per capita and the other nuisance taxes some counties like to impose. So I apologize for being stupid.

Gotcha. Thank you for explaining.

Not a nuisance tax, but a nuisance to go through this filing process. Other states I’ve lived in simply withdrew the required local tax and that was it. I don’t understand why PA handles it this way.

Yes. Local wage taxes are unfortunately a thing.

It absolutely is a nuisance. They got their money, they know they got their money, but Keystone, a private company, is just rent seeking and wants to steal more.

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Yes!!!

Because you pay a percentage of your income in taxes at federal, state, and local levels. Municipal / school taxes are the local level.

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School taxes are part of property tax. OP is referring to local income tax.

Yes. That is you local township or city taxes

You need to talk to your employer then. They may be assessing local tax for the wrong municipality. Some require it assessed if you live there, some if you work there.

In one word, YES!

> Sure, but "Local Earned Income Tax" is a specific thing, and that specific thing isn't municipal/school taxes.

Are you sure about that? The Earned Income Tax rate in Pittsburgh is 3%; 1% of that goes to the City, and 2% goes to the school district.

School taxes are based on property value AND earned income in the City and many other municipalities.

Yes, but double check that it's for the correct location where you live or work. Keystone sent me a "local earned income tax return" for a neighboring borough because my work's payroll which is based in Maryland didn't know the difference.

I called Keystone collections group (they were very helpful on the phone). I had to upload the borough maps and maps of my township and they cancelled this. So, just a word of caution to always verify what, where and when bill is from before you pay.

School taxes are also a part of local income tax in many school districts. Two-thirds of your income tax in the City goes to PPS.

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> Sure, but "Local Earned Income Tax" is a specific thing, and that specific thing isn't municipal/school taxes.

Except that thing is only municipal and school (in some school districts) taxes. 0.5% of the 1.5% Local Earned Income Tax in Bellevue goes to the Northgate School District, and 1.0% goes to the municipality of Bellevue.

Plenty of people call them Municipal taxes because "municipal" just means relating to a city or town or its governing body. If you've never heard them called as such, maybe it's because your parents and/or teachers don't use the term?

> If you want to have a pedantic semantic argument, go be wrong somewhere else.

Ha!

Actuall school tax is different than LEIT. Also different from local services tax, PA unemployment tax, residency tax. PA has a huge problem making this more complicated than it needs to be. In NYC (the king of high taxes I might add) there was a spot on the state tax return where you computed local taxes and added them to the total. Done. 4 lines. No fuss.

The taxes aren’t even that much here. But think about how inefficient this is. What percentage of revenue that Keystone and Berkheimer collect actually goes to where it’s supposed to, after administrative fees.

Shit my town sent me a poll tax. Everyone who lives here (not just homeowners but renters too) have to pay 10 dollars a year just for living here. But you can only pay online and there’s a 3 dollar convenience fee. Thank you Berkheimer. Can you imagine if NYC was like hey you owe 2% income tax, but btw there’s a 30% “convenience fee.” PA really needs to clean this shit up. They’d save a lot of money in the process, too.

Edit: 3 dollar fee not 3%

I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. In my municipality, local earned income tax is completely separate and different from school taxes. Different computation, different basis, different collecting authority.

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Yes. Different tax.

interesting, I've always heard was property tax