Municipal Update: YATB Extended Deadline for Local Earned Income Tax & More

I hope everyone is doing well and starting to figure this all out.  We thought this afternoon was timely to send an update on a couple of additional issues relevant to your municipal operations, especially tax revenue and material bids.  As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us.

1. York-Adams Tax Bureau has extended the deadline for filing and payment of Local Earned Income Tax.  Following the announcements by the IRS and the PA Dept. of Revenue, YATB has extended the filing deadline and payment for 2019 Individual Earned Income Tax Returns to July 15, 2020. This means taxpayers will have an additional 90 days to file from the original deadline of April 15. YATB will also waive penalties and interest on 2019 earned income tax payments through the new deadline of July 15, 2020. This extension applies to both 2019 Individual tax returns and payments, and estimated payments for the first quarter of 2020. EMPLOYERS: At the present time there are no extensions for Employer 1st Quarter 2020 Earned Income Tax Returns or payment of the 1st Quarter 2020 tax withheld from employees.  The payment due date for Second Quarter estimated payments remains the same at July 31.

The Cumberland County Tax Bureau has likewise extended the filing deadline and payment for 2019 Individual Earned Income Tax Returns to July 15, 2020.

2. Deadline for Local Services Tax and Mercantile & Business Privilege Taxes not extended in most municipalities. The April 15 deadline for filing and paying first quarter Local Services Tax and Mercantile & Business Privilege Tax is not extended, unless the local municipality opts to do so.  Very few municipalities have offered any relief on this front.  Your municipality may extend the deadline by resolution.  Do not forget to contact YATB if you extend this deadline.

 The Cumberland County Tax Bureau has not posted any information on the first quarter Local Services Tax and Mercantile & Business Privilege Tax.

4. Deadlines for payment of County and Municipal Property Taxes at rebate or face value not extended.  The deadlines to pay county and municipal property taxes at the rebate (4/15) and face amounts (6/15) are not extended at this time.  We have been in contact with York County to determine what the County will do with deadlines for payment of County property taxes.  As we know, County and Municipal taxes are billed together and most people pay County and Municipal taxes with one check, so different deadlines could be hard to administer and confusing to taxpayers.  The property taxes for about half of property owners are paid through escrow with their mortgage company.  Those monies are already paid and escrowed for County and Municipal property taxes.  The bigger crunch may be when school taxes are due this fall.  We expect many mortgagors will defer their mortgage payments for a few months, which means escrows may be underfunded when taxes are due.
5. Construction Season Material Bids.  Many of you have canceled your recent or upcoming public meetings.  Many of you also need to advertise for material bids for the summer construction season.  We have been asked by several municipalities what to do if they are not meeting.  The authorization and advertisement for bids does not involve any expenditure of money (other than the advertisement cost), so we suggest you proceed with the advertisements.  Your advertisements and bid package should include a requirement to keep all bids open for 60 days.  If you cancel the meeting where the bids are to be awarded, you will still be able to award the bids at the next public meeting (assuming we return to normal life in the next 60 days).  The award of the bid at a public meeting ratifies the advertisement and actions leading up to the award decision.  We also suggest you let your bidders (at least the low bidders) know when a meeting is canceled as well as the date for the next following meeting when the award will be made.

Remember, as always, you may vote to reject all bids and re-advertise for bids at the next public meeting if the results are not acceptable.

5. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic: Eligible Emergency Protective Measures.  FEMA has released a fact sheet describing what Public Program Assistance is available to local municipalities to reimburse costs for responding to the coronavirus emergency.  Public Program Assistance is managed through PEMA.

To better keep you informed, we created a resource page on our website where we are posting all updates and recommendations for our municipal clients and business clients.  Please visit https://mpl-law.com/resource-center/.  Please also feel free to post a link to our resource center on your website if you feel the information would be useful to your residents.