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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 1, 2023 12:30 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative James B. Struzzi, II and Rep. Brett R. Miller |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Continuing Telephonic Tax Filing to Serve the Amish and Mennonite Communities |
| In the near future we will be introducing legislation requiring the Department of Revenue to maintain a telephonic tax filing system to ensure the efficient and cost-effective filing of taxes for the 41,000 users who use this system currently. As many of you may know the Department of Revenue has begun their shift to the online only MyPATH system for tax filing across the state. However, this has had an enormous impact on the Amish and Mennonite communities throughout the Commonwealth which rely upon the Telefile System to file their taxes every year. As a result of information requested at the recent budget hearings, the Department of Revenue revealed that for calendar year ending December 31, 2022, 51,000 users utilized Telefile, producing 205,000 returns resulting in $716 million in payments, with $456 million in CNIT. Of these users, 10,000 have migrated to using myPATH leaving 41,000 individuals and businesses without access to an accurate, cost effective and convenient method of filing taxes. When questioned how the DOR proposed to address collection of taxes of these 41,000 tax filers – most of whom do not use computers – the DOR suggested a solution of hiring 15 additional staff, costing approximately $1 million/year and placing these new staff in new field offices so members of the public can travel to file their taxes in person. At a time when the state is struggling to staff existing positions, it seems a stretch to suggest the Department of Revenue could develop such a system and staff it properly any time soon. Further, forcing those in the Amish/Mennonite community, many of whom will have to travel many miles by horse and buggy, when they could easily, accurately and safely file as they have done previously, is the farthest thing from being efficient or customer friendly. Furthermore, it may in fact be discriminatory. Therefore, we are introducing legislation that will require the Department to maintain a telephonic tax filing system to ensure that 41,000+ users can continue to use the phone to file their taxes so the state can continue to collect over $716 million dollars in taxes annually. This proposal has the strong support of the NFIB. We respectfully ask for your support of this initiative. |
Introduced as HB2123