Tax committee terminates Centax contract

BY STACI WILSON

The county’s Tax Collection Committee has ended its contract with the company it selected to collect earned income tax for school districts and municipalities.

The Tax Collection Committee severed its ties with Centrial Tax Bureau of Pennsylvania, Inc. – referred to as Centax – after the company failed to deliver expected revenues since taking over collection on Jan. 1.

The Tax Collection Committee is composed of representatives from all of the governing bodies in the county that impose an earned income tax.

Centax began collecting taxes underTCCsupervision with the first quarter of 2012 which ended March 31.

In a memorandum dated June 28 fromTCCsolicitor Jason Confair it was stated that Centax failed to communicate with employers, school districts, municipalities and taxpayers, as well as auditing and remittance failures.

According to the memorandum, complaints against Centax began to snowball in May and June as school districts and municipalities discovered they were not receiving their tax revenues.

By June 11, Centax had distributed only about $55,000 in taxes throughoutSusquehannaCounty. First quarter collections should have totaled about $775,000. And as of June 18, Centax distributed only $5,461 in additional revenue.

According to the memorandum, Centax had not identified where the remaining tax revenues forSusquehannaCountywere by June 18.

Representatives from Berkheimer Associates, another tax collection firm, retrieved the unprocessed tax returns forSusquehannaCountyand began processing the tax. Berkheimer processed and distributed about $177,912 in revenues by June 28.