Certain businesses are required to make monthly sales tax prepayments to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The prepayment represents the acceleration of the subsequent month’s sales tax liability and is computed using 50 percent of the sales tax liability reported for the same month in the preceding year. Failure of a business to pay the accelerated prepayment of sales tax typically results in the imposition of significant penalties.
It was announced today that the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue is waiving the requirement to make the accelerated prepayment in April, May, and June of 2020. Waiving this requirement should help businesses preserve cash flow, since the prepayment is calculated based on operations in the preceding year when businesses were presumably better off financially.
Businesses that normally have an accelerated prepayment requirement will not be charged penalties for missing the prepayment during this three-month period.
Businesses should only remit the actual tax collected. The due dates for the returns have not been extended and are due on the original date. Monthly filers will continue to file their returns on April 20, May 20, and June 22.
We will continue to keep you updated as this picture evolves, but for now, we encourage you to contact your Kreischer Miller tax professional or any member of our State and Local Tax team to discuss your individual circumstances. We also continue to update our COVID-19 Resource Center, which you can access here.
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