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July 18, 2012

County suggests per capita tax changes

By Keith Gushard Meadville Tribune

MEADVILLE — A county task force is recommending Crawford County, local municipalities and local school districts revise collection of per capita taxes starting in 2013.

Per capita tax is levied on individuals age 18 and older in each household.

It generated about $175,000 in net revenue for the county in 2011, according to a countywide per capita task force.

Currently, local municipalities and the county send out their per capita tax bills in April, while local school districts issue theirs in August.

The task force found many taxpayers confuse the school district per capita tax bills in August with the local and county ones issued in April.

The tax force was formed with Crawford County Commissioner Chairman Francis Weiderspahn and representatives from the Crawford County Treasurer’s Office and Crawford County Tax Collectors Association.

To avoid confusion, the task force is recommending the spring county per capita taxes be included with the fall school per capita tax bill and that local municipalities also be encouraged to switch to a fall billing.

The county task force recommends the county switch with the issuance of per capita tax bills in 2013 for two reasons.

One is savings is the cost of printing and mailing per capita tax bills; they would be shared equally by all three taxing bodies — county, local municipality and local school district. Currently, the county and local municipalities share the cost of the spring mailing which requires the school districts and their taxpayers to pay 100 percent of the costs of the fall billing.

The second reason is to reduce confusion to taxpayers.

When taxpayers receive a second $10 per capita tax bill in the fall, often they think they have already paid that bill in full, according to the task force’s findings. Taxpayers may throw out the fall bill, or if they had not paid the spring bill, pay the fall bill only, thinking it is a duplicate, according to the task force.

The end result is one of the two billings isn’t paid with the unpaid bill sent to a collection agency.

Crawford County Board of Commissioners is expected to act on the task force’s recommendation at its meeting Thursday.



Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.

 

 

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