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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Philadelphia, meet your taxes

In honor of Mayor Nutter's proposal to raise the property tax and introduce a sugary-drink tax, we looked at the wider world of taxes: What other taxes could the city raise, or introduce?

There don't appear to be many major taxes in use by other cities that Philly doesn't already have. And under state law, the city can raise only certain taxes.

Here are the taxes you pay, how much you pay, and whether the city can make you pay more.

Type of Tax	Who Pays	What we Pay Now	Can We Raise It?
Wage Tax	Employed people. Doesn’t matter where you work or how much you earn.	Residents: 3.298% Non-residents: 3.4985%	No. The gaming law prevents the city from raising the wage tax.
Business Taxes Includes the Business Privilege and Net Profits Tax	Anyone engaged in “activity for profit.” The NPT is specifically for self-employed people.	BPT:1.415 mills on Gross Receipts, 6.45% on Net Income. NPT: Residents: 3.298% Non-residents: 3.4985%	Yes. The city could raise the BPT.
Property Taxes Includes Real Estate, Realty Transfer and Business Use and Occupancy Tax	People who own property, buy or sell property, or use property for commercial purposes.	Real Estate: 8.264%. Realty Transfer: 3% (plus 1% to state) Business Occupancy: $4.62 per $100 of assessed value.	Yes. The Real Estate tax was raised last year.
Sales Tax	People who buy stuff.	City tax: 2% State tax: 6% Total: 8%	No. The city would need state approval to raise this tax.
Service taxes Includes Amusement tax, Hotel Room Rental tax, Parking tax, Vehicle Rental tax, Outdoor Advertising Tax and a couple others	People who buy specific stuff the city has decided to tax. Notice that some of these hit non-voters (like hotel and vehicle rental taxes). That’s not an accident.	Amusement tax: 5% Hotel Room tax: 8.2% Parking tax: 20% Vehicle rental tax: 2% Outdoor Advertising: 7% of purchase price	Depends on the service. The city can’t tax anything the state already taxes without state approval.
Sin taxes Includes the Liquor Sales tax and tobacco and tobacco-related products tax.	People who buy specific stuff the city wants to discourage. These taxes have been all the rage in recent years.	Liquor: 10% Tobacco: $0.036 per individually rolled item; $0.36 per pack of rolling papers; $0.36 per ounce other products.	Yes. It could also introduce a new sin tax, like … a sugary drink tax. Washington D.C. has a five cent tax on plastic bags.
Fees The city has 175 of these, from electrical permits to dog licenses.	People who pay for permits or licenses.	The city collected $42.3 million from licenses and permits in 2010.	The city can add new fees, but these are only supposed to offset the cost of the service.

Posted by Doron Taussig @ 5:00 AM Permalink | 9 comments

Comments

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:11 PM, 06/02/2011

You forgot one -- The School Income Tax. Quoting the city's website -- "The School District of Philadelphia imposes a tax on various classes of unearned income which are not subject to Philadelphia Business Privilege Tax or Wage Tax. Some examples of unearned taxable income include dividends and certain rents and royalties." In short, it is a tax on earned interest and dividends. Does anyone pay this? Does anyone even know about this? It was left out of your tax chart. I file my return and pay this tax every year.

— dafla67

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:57 PM, 06/02/2011

You are right, this tax was left off the chart.

— Doron Taussig

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:54 PM, 06/02/2011

Raise tobacco taxes

— bp_

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:52 AM, 06/06/2011

Why not list a line item for the school taxes?
Plural.... Taxes!
60% of our Real Estate Tax , plus
an addition percentage taken from our Investment income, plus,
the school district exacts a tax on accounts set up by grandparents for the education of grandchildren to have a choice other than the public schools. Is that at all fair?
Both of these last two taxes are probably illegal.

My car mechanic say this; his fee to dispose of oil and tires has doubled, hence it is passed on to you and to me...as another tax.
Plus, he commented that cars today do not need the emissions tests since they are all mechanically built to be clean running unlike cars of 20-30 years ago but the emission tests persist and also doubled...and we have to pay for them, still, hence these are all additional taxes we all pay. The emission test might be useful if it applied only to old cars, but there are so few of them anymore, why bother?

Please add these to your very useful chart.

— GAC

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:50 PM, 06/08/2011

what about something on the lawyers who clog up our courts. You ever try to get a civil court date in this city?

— Paul Deon

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:23 AM, 06/15/2011

I think there is an error in the chart. The City Wage Tax for Residents is supposed to be 3.928, not 3.298. There is no way the City of Philadelphia would charge its residents less than or the same amount in city wage taxes than non-residents...that would actually promote growth and partially stop the flow of people out of the city, and that's just not City Council's MO.

— tricch04

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:23 AM, 06/15/2011

— tricch04

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:42 PM, 01/14/2012

What about reducing waste and ineptitude in the city government?

— Dr. Rudy Masciantonio

9 comments

About It's Our Money

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Contact:

Doron Taussig:
215-854-5307
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@dorontaussig

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