Well, my BPT and NPT forms and payment are finally in the mail. I want to throw out a couple of observations about this comically unpleasant experience. But first, let’s review how we got here:
- On Sunday I realized I needed to pay the BPT, because I made freelance money last year that wasn’t subject to the wage tax. I tried to print the forms off the Revenue Department’s website but couldn’t because the site is only compatible with Internet Explorer.
- On Monday I acquired the forms, but didn’t have my city business account number. I called the Revenue Department but didn’t get through.
- On Tuesday I got through and learned that my business had been closed, and that I might have to jump through some hoops to pay my taxes.
- On Wednesday, over the course of 6,000 phone calls, I was told that my business had not been closed, but that the city had sued me for not filing a BPT return in 2005, when my business earned $0. I also learned that I had to pay the NPT in addition to the BPT. This ultimately didn’t cost much, but it involved more time and paperwork.
- On Thursday, I mailed my taxes and began the process of moving out of Philadelphia.
Just kidding about that last part. But this experience was atrocious.
A couple of caveats in the city’s defense:
1) Putting aside the question of whether the BPT is too high, the city did not appear to be trying to screw me out of all of my money. The fact of the matter is that I was delinquent with some taxes, and Philadelphia might have either made me pay my business start-up fee a second time or charged big-time penalties (which it still might do, but hopefully not), or both. It did not.
2) The people at the city, especially Harriett Mitchell at the Revenue Department, were all very nice and willing to help.
But it’s a problem that I feel as though I’ve talked to every damn customer service employee in Philadelphia. Every one I talked to could help me with one aspect of my problem, but not another. Is it so outlandish in this day and age to think the Revenue Department could just have employees whose specialty is “taxes”? Who could be reached on one phone number without first talking to someone else at a different phone number? It all seemed depressingly inefficient.
And while we’re here:
- The forms. Oh my god the forms. Can you write them in English? And put the appendices (labeled A-E) in alphabetical order?
- Can you not close my business when I don’t file my taxes for a year? (I didn’t file for three, but my business was closed – or almost closed – the first year.) I find it hard to believe this doesn’t happen to lots and lots of freelancers. Sometimes you forget about that $50 check you earned last August.
- FIX THE WEBSITE PLEASE.
***
There’s a strange emotional component to paying the BPT. You feel like a sucker, like you’re paying it voluntarily. At least I did.
The reason I felt this way, I think, is that not everyone pays it, and the reason not everyone pays it is that it’s obscure and applies to people who don’t think of themselves as businesses. What’s more, the payment process sure feels like it’s designed so that you, the taxpayer, do the great bulk of the work. I am no longer surprised that so many taxpayers in this city just say, “screw it.”
Paying your taxes should feel mandatory, but it should feel mandatory the way that stopping at a red light feels mandatory – not an undue burden. Otherwise citizens get confused and cynical: Some don’t know the rules, others cheat, the ones that are left get angry, and taxpayer confidence in government erodes. And then where are you?
Actually, it sounds kind of like you’re in Philadelphia. What a shame.
You should go ahead and move out of Philadelphia. Its a disgrace the way they treat the very people who keep the city financially afloat.— mudd- The city should decide if it's taxing wages, income, and/or profits and figure out how to make that clear and not a hassle for compliance. For example, freelancers and other home-based workers are a new category (for about 20 years now) but the city has no real capacity to make that distinction. The city taxes wages. Freelancers earn wages from informal employers who pass on the hassle of payroll paperwork to casual/marginal workers. If the city has a claim on the earned income of every resident, then they should have adequate mechanisms to capture that revenue properly and appropriately manage its relationships with those individuals. Sporadic freelance income can definitely be a fulltime business but it's often a one-off, a now and then maybe kind of situation that does not rise to the full status of a normal "business". Federal forms can handle that arrangement but the city tortures it. An individual's tax identification number is their social security number; the city truly can work with that. Another nuance is the rate difference between the wage tax which is a little bit less than 4% (or so) and the BPT which is about 6.5% (or something). Since the wage tax is lower, but can only be assessed by way of payroll tax deduction, that suggests that formal employers benefit (yes) from a tax subsidy because only formal employers can qualify their workers for the lower tax rate. It gives an edge to formal employers and toughens the terrain for independent workers, who get no health benefits (which are tax free at the federal level), no retirement benefits, no eligibility for unemployment insurance etc. The city's coffee shops are ready; the "new" economy is already happening. And it's not just yuppies who fall into the marginal zone between employee and proprietor. Can the IRS share its technology with the city to build a useful website?— MB6
- What I find to be the biggest insult with the BPT is the requirement that you pay a $250 fee for the privilege of paying the tax. This especially hurts those who do a small amount of work on a 1099. Another serious problem with the BPT (or perhaps the NPT, I can't remember which one) is that you're required to pay on estimated earnings for 2 years in advance. So if you have income in 1 year on a 1099, you are required to pay the outrageous $250 fee, plus estimated gains for 2 years, even if you have no intention of working on a 1099 again.— jfar86
- I read somewhere else on the site about the trapped Chilean miners getting a bore hole drilled for them and found the parallel to be appropriate.— PostMoreThan10Comments, GetCensored
PHILADELPHIA HORROR STORY
PILE OF BOTTLES FILLED WITH URINE
WILL CITY COVER $41 MILLION IN STATE CUTS?
Tips? Comments? Questions?
Contact:
Doron
Taussig:
215-854-5307
doron.taussig@gmail.com
@dorontaussig
Holly
Otterbein:
215-854-5809
hm.otterbein@gmail.com
@hollyotterbein
Juliana
Reyes:
215-854-5855
juliana.f.reyes@gmail.com
@juliana_f_reyes
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