With businesses struggling, Wolf admin. temporarily waives sales tax prepayments

Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has waived Accelerated Sales Tax (AST) prepayments for April, May and June 2020 in order to “provide support to our businesses at a time when they are doing their part to help us prevent the spread of the virus,” the administration said in a statement Tuesday.

According to the administration, the sales tax  waiver affects businesses that collect Pennsylvania sales tax and whose liability is more than $25,000 during the third quarter of the former year. Under normal circumstances, these business taxpayers are required to make monthly prepayments of sales taxes to the commonwealth. 

The Pennsylvania  Department of Revenue said it’s asking businesses covered by the waiver to remit sales taxes that were collected during the prior month. The deadline to remit these taxes coincides with the standard due dates for filers who have no monthly prepayment requirements; April 20, May 20 and June 22. 

This move is designed to help businesses with cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic, the administration said. 

State officials confirmed that “Pennsylvania’s General Fund took in $4.4 billion in revenue last month, 6.2 percent less than expected,” the Capital-Star reported on Monday. 

“Sales tax receipts totaled $839.2 million for March, $24.2 million below estimate,” the department announced on April 1. 

The deadline to file personal state income tax returns has been extended as well. 

The personal income tax returns deadline is now July 15, the same as the new federal tax deadline. The deadline to file information returns for corporations, trusts, estates, partnerships and individuals has also been moved to July 15, and corporations with tax returns due in May now have until Aug. 14 to file, the administration said.