CreativeDiscipline7 t1_j8g2ggc wrote on February 14, 2023 at 1:11 AM

Moved here last year and this will be the first time I'm filing Pennsylvania taxes. Turns out TurboTax does not do Philly local taxes. (Don't know if other software does; I haven't tried yet.) How do people deal with this? Do you just file local taxes separately, by hand?

templestate t1_j8gldcl wrote on February 14, 2023 at 3:39 AM

There’s no Philly return if your employer takes it out which most do. If your employer hasn’t been taking it out (for example, you work out of state) or you’re self-employed, you are supposed to pay quarterly through a separate process.

Brahette t1_j8i22ji wrote on February 14, 2023 at 1:50 PM

The whole quarterly payment thing is insane to me - you basically just blindly send the city money without filing anything at all. Then come tax season is when you actually figure out if you overpaid or underpaid. I switched jobs last year and Job 1 was NOT taking the money out, but then Job 2 was. so I had half a year I had to figure out lol

justaphage42 t1_j8i544f wrote on February 14, 2023 at 2:14 PM

Funnily enough, you have to do the exact same thing if your self-employed or otherwise don't have your federal taxes withheld. Just send them money every quarter. (there is a form to help you estimate it since federal is more complicated, but you don't file the form, just send the money with a little piece of paper saying how much money you're sending) Had to do it for my first year filing taxes and it def stressed me out.

Brahette t1_j8imv19 wrote on February 14, 2023 at 4:17 PM

lol yeah it also stressed me out not having anything to go along with the money I was sending. Just here ya go, here's a few thousand bucks hope it's what I owe. But at least now my new job is taking it out so I won't have to worry about it in future years. My old job couldn't even get me in the right state, I wasn't going to attempt to have them add the city tax on too lol

Brahette t1_j8i1dh9 wrote on February 14, 2023 at 1:45 PM

I actually just had this done literally yesterday lol by a local company. They figured out all the paperwork for me, but I still have to file it through the Philadelphia Tax Center website (or I can mail it). I'm not sure if I can just upload the paperwork or if I have to fill it out line by line but I have to do it (not the tax preparer).

As others noted, you'll want to double check first that your employer wasn't taking the wage tax out. If they did, you don't need to do anything. If they didn't, then yes you need to file.

UndercoverPhilly t1_j8gfny6 wrote on February 14, 2023 at 2:53 AM

I've always used Turbo Tax. The Wage Tax is taken out of my paycheck so I think there was a somewhere to put that through Turbo Tax--local taxes. I never have done a separate return for the Wage tax. (And I have filed in PA/Philly since 2006).

If you have a business, you should have a business license, and can file your business taxes either on paper or online. I've always filed on paper, although once I think I filed online--that whole process has changed--before it was very antiquated.

If your wage tax is not taken out of your paycheck you can pay that (Earnings Tax) online:

https://www.phila.gov/services/payments-assistance-taxes/taxes/income-taxes/earnings-tax-employees/