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Auditor General Says Business Owe Millions In Corporate Taxes

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In rolling audits of the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale says they’ve found that Pennsylvania is owed more than 40 million in underpaid corporate taxes. At the same time, the state owes businesses over 5 million from over payments.

DePasquale says it’s not a new problem. The audits have been finding a 6-7% error rate for the last four years.  The latest review found more than 12 hundred returns with errors.

He’s calling on the department to step up its efforts to collect the underpayments as well as return the over-payments and forward the difference to the Treasury. He says the net amount of 35.4 million could be factored in to the ongoing budget debate

He says the 35.4 million dollars should be part of the state budget to offset some of the cuts made over the last year. He says it could be used for variety of needs from environmental to education and health programs.

DePasquale could not name the companies that had underpaid, but said two of them were responsible for nearly half of the money owed. He says we should be doing everything we can to collect that revenue to offset tough budget cuts.

He says there are working families all over the state paying their taxes,  who are probably asking why corporations did not pay what they fully owed.

The audit results were announced on Tax Day.

Pennsylvania Revenues Come in Below Estimate for January

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State revenue collections fell short of estimates last month, according to the Pennsylvania Departmetn of Revenue.

January revenue collections were off slightly as the state collected almost 19 million dollars less than anticipated, a difference of eight-tenths of a percent.

Still, boosted by December’s better than expected performance, the fiscal year to date General Fund collections are 1.1 percent ahead of estimates.

Sales tax receipts fell short by 59 million dollars in January. Inheritance tax, and other general fund revenue such as cigarette, malt beverage, liquor and table games taxes were below estimate for the month.

Personal income, Realty Transfer and Corporation taxes performed above estimate.

PA in the Black for the First Quarter

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The state’s revenue picture brightened enough in September to put collections for the first quarter of the fiscal year slightly ahead of estimates.

The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue reports that the Commonwealth collected 2.4 billion dollars in general fund revenue last month, which was 1.8% more than anticipated.  It was enough to make up for collections in August that were below estimates, bringing the state two-tenths of a point above estimate for year to date collections.

Personal income tax revenue was above estimate, bringing in 1% more than anticipated for the first quarter. Corporation taxes are running 14%  ahead of estimates year to date. But other collections remain below estimate, including sales, inheritance and other general fund tax revenue.