Perkiomen Valley EIT (Berkheimer Form?)

[The LIghts of Graterford]

Got a "questionaire" from Berkheimer informing me that I'm subject to a 1.125% earned-income tax. From what I know, Collegeville Borough has a 1% EIT but residents in other areas (e.g., Perki Township) covered by PVSD do not, or have lower EIT rates. We voted down the increase by an almost 5-to-1 margin on the referendum this year. The Per Capita/Occupation/Real Estate Taxes are already over 2% of my income...I don't need another tax (esp. w/ the Perk Valley real estate taxes going up yet another 5.6%).

...Just wondering if anyone else got an unexpected Berk/Perk tax form or if they're aware of why these have been sent out. Thanks.

[Liz D]

I've haven't received the particular form you mentioned but I have gotten several forms in error from Berk. I suggest calling them. In every instance they old me that I "didn't need to fill out that form". Looks like they send these out en masse without much specificity to the particular township. One more thing...expect to be on hold for awhile when you call.:-)

[The Lights of Graterford]

Thanks for the optimism but I just called the township and apparently there's a 1 1/8% EIT in place for Perkiomen Township. That's on top of the Occupation Tax levied by the school district. I guess the referendum was for replacing the Occ tax with _another_ 1% EIT. This stinks!!!!(moving next year anyway...good riddance)

[Skipmark]

Not sure if i follow the question, but the letter was probably just informing you that your new EIT % is 1.125%. Your employer will withhold the local EIT % where the business takes residence. For example, if you work in West Chester w/ a local tax of 1%, live in Collegeville which has a 1.125% rate, you will have to pay the 0.125% when filing your local taxes. It's not an additional 1% tax that you will be paying, on top of your 1.125 local tax rate. Not sure where the line is drawn in c-ville, but my wife and i have been paying 1.125 for the past 2 years.

[The Lights of Graterford]

I know the local taxes held out by my local municipality will offset the c-ville EIT. I just didn't know there was a c-ville EIT. I assumed that the per-capita/occupation tax was the only local municipality tax so was a bit surprised when I found out c-ville wants a percentage of your income on top of the fixed amount in the occ tax. Seems like double-dipping to me tho.

[TLO]

Let's see... To begin with, I pay $3500.00 in real-estate taxes, which goes to the school district. Then an occupation tax that goes to the school district, and the local earned income tax that goes to the school district.
So if you have an "occupation", one would assume you "earn" an income!
I wonder what other names they can come up with to tax me some more.
Time to move!

[TLO]

Skipmark wrote:

Not sure if i follow the question, but the letter was probably just informing you that your new EIT % is 1.125%. Your employer will withhold the local EIT % where the business takes residence. For example, if you work in West Chester w/ a local tax of 1%, live in Collegeville which has a 1.125% rate, you will have to pay the 0.125% when filing your local taxes. It's not an additional 1% tax that you will be paying, on top of your 1.125 local tax rate. Not sure where the line is drawn in c-ville, but my wife and i have been paying 1.125 for the past 2 years.

How about the 800.00 occupation tax that we pay on top of it in PV.

[The Lights of Graterford]

Too true. And I can drive the entire circumference of the municipality in 5 minutes flat. What's it, like 10 square miles, if that? Perky is a decent school but that's a LOT of money from all the residents for a tiny little school district. Northampton Township in Lower Bucks has very similar taxes all the way around, much more infrastructure to maintain, and they get the Rock. We get PVSD?
Oh, and the sewer bill just went up $5 again. ARGH.

[Over taxed]

Perkiomen has way too many taxes. Real Estate taxes, per capita tax, school tax, occupational tax and the earned income tax. Just another name to add more taxes. Why should we pay school taxes if our children are either out of school or never had children. Is there even a break for the elderly? Perhaps it is time to say enough is enough. People on limited incomes lose their houses that they worked all thier lives to afford because they cannot afford around 5 grand per year just on taxes.

[Over taxed]

Glad to see this system works really well. It automatically put me in as Concord, MA when I live in Schwenksville, PA. Our tax dollars at work

[The Lights of Graterford]

The address is based on your ISP. But yeah...PVSD likes to tax everything and everyone. Recently moved into Skippack and it turns out they're even more expensive!

[Jim]

PV's school board feels perfectly free to spend OUR money & raise OUR taxes (even in these difficult times) because they know they can get away with it. Practically no one attends their meetings, so why should they feel accountable? For those who didn't bother to even vote at the May, 2009 Primary, there was only 1 challenger for a board seat and, while a very nice prson, I seriously doubt she is a fiscal conservative.

Time for a tea party, my friends....or, at the very least, a write-in campaign in November. Talk is cheap. Vote the bums out. Half of them are are on an ego trip, anyway.

[Bob]

Hi,

I'm considering moving to Collegeville and am wondering if there's a breakdown of what I should expect from a tax perspective. It looks like my real estate taxes would be around $3200 a year, however I'm wondering what else I should expect.

Thanks!

[leonard]

I don't pay it. I let them come after me then I tell them I can't afford it.

[leonard]

I live in a town home. My school taxes are 3400, my property taxes are 500, berkheimer is over 1000 and local employee tax is 500. I don't have kids and I don't own property. The bank owns my townhome and my front yard is smaller than my bathroom.

[The Lights of Graterford]

Well, congratulations PVSD...the EIT referendum passed so now everyone's earnings get taxed by EIT only instead of a combination of EIT and occ/per capita. If you make more than 80K per year you can probably expect to pay more once this goes into effect and no longer will you be able to spread the occ tax bill across two payments. Hooray!

I'm all for percentage-based taxes but this is NOT revenue neutral.

Bob, it depends on where you live. Check with the local municipality.