Apr 16, 2020 2 min read

The state of Pennsylvania said on Wednesday it was putting payment plans on hold by request and making other temporary dispensations for taxpayers affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration said the period of “temporary relief for taxpayers” would last until July 15 at earliest. The filing deadline for personal income taxes would have been on Wednesday, but state and federal authorities postponed the deadline until July 15 because of the pandemic.

“While people focus on their health and keeping themselves and their families safe during the pandemic, our goal is to ease the burden for our customers and help everyone move forward,” said state Revenue Secretary Dan Hassell. “We want to help people and businesses make it through this challenging situation.”

The steps identified by Hassell’s office largely involve the procedural handing of cases involving delinquent or unpaid state taxes. Department of Revenue said it will do the following:

• Pause payments for existing payment plans upon requests from taxpayers.
• Provide flexible terms for new payment plans.
• Work to boost customer service for taxpayers impacted by the pandemic.
• Suspend or reduce automatic enforcement actions for liens, wage garnishments, bank attachments, license inspections, requirements for tax clearances and use of private collection agencies.
• Suspend the creation of new desk reviews and field audits in most cases.
• Suspend in-person meetings with taxpayers in most cases.
• Broaden audit penalty abatement and interest relief.
• Continue to administer tax credit and incentive programs.
• Abate penalties in most cases if taxpayers have remitted trust fund taxes they collected.

More information can be found at a special page on the Department of Revenue’s website: www.revenue.pa.gov/Pages/Relief-For-Taxpayers.aspx.