HARRISBURG – As a follow-up to Pennsylvania’s recent Tax Amnesty program, the Department of Revenue today released a newly expanded online list detailing more than 39,000 state tax liens against individuals and businesses that owe $233 million in state taxes.
“Before Tax Amnesty ended in June, we promised to step-up enforcement efforts against anyone who did not take advantage of that generous, yet limited-time offer to settle back taxes without having to pay all the penalties and interest,” Revenue Secretary C. Daniel Hassell said. “Our exhaustive online list, naming tens of thousands of tax delinquents across the state, is the first step in fulfilling that pledge to pursue unpaid state taxes even more aggressively.”
Publicly identifying tax delinquents can be a successful tax collection incentive. About half of all states use Internet lists to help collect unpaid taxes, including Delaware, Maryland, New York and Virginia.
The Pennsylvania tax delinquent list first debuted in April 2006. The prospect of appearing on the list encouraged delinquent taxpayers to pay $127.3 million and enter into deferred payment plans for an additional $12.6 million in previously unpaid taxes through June 2010.
The expanded tax delinquent list includes more than 10 times the number of tax delinquents offered in previous versions. The list previously detailed only employer withholding and sales tax liabilities, but the new list includes information about all state tax liens filed since July 2009. The revised list will be updated monthly, rather than quarterly, to include newly filed liens and remove satisfied liens.
“By ‘naming names’ online, we hope to shame tax scofflaws into paying their fair share,” said Hassell. “We don’t like to have to embarrass taxpayers into complying with the law, but these tax delinquents leave us no choice. This list exposes tax cheats to the 97 percent of Pennsylvanians who already do the right thing and pay their taxes on time and in full.”
Information on the website is public as a result of liens filed by the Revenue Department. Each lien is recorded in the prothonotary’s office of the county where the person lives or does business. The amounts listed on the website represent the original lien amounts. The current amount of tax due may differ from the amount listed on the site because of partial payments and/or the accrual of additional interest since the tax lien was filed.
Anyone appearing on the list should call the Revenue Department at 717-783-3000 to make payment arrangements.
The complete tax delinquent list is available at www.revenue.state.pa.us, under the “Hot Topics” tab on the home page.