from the bcct:
District-place correct code on returns
By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
The Morrisville School District found that 39 percent of all tax filings used the wrong code in 2009.
This tax season, be extra careful. Know your school district and report the correct school code on your tax return.
It's a seemingly minor point amid the acres of details on a tax form, but making a mistake has consequences that can affect the amount of state funding your school district gets.
When errors occur, each district must figure out which taxpayers reported the wrong school code, and pass the information on to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Known as the Act 80 review, this process consumes hundreds of hours each year.
In 2009, the Morrisville School District found that 39 percent of all Morrisville tax filings used the wrong code, based on the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue's list of taxpayers who reported the Morrisville school code on their returns.
The state sends Morrisville a list of addresses of taxpayers who used the Morrisville code in their returns and the district compares those to the addresses in the borough. Then, the district sends the state a list of corrections and the state amends its records.
"It's a problem Morrisville has been dealing with for about 30 years. What we're looking for is a more permanent solution," said Paul DeAngelo, the district's business administrator. On his desk was a 2-inch thick packet of property lists, reports and analyses complied from just one year of correction work.
Each tax season, his office also has to mail a list of addresses incorrectly filed under Morrisville to their proper school districts. Then each district has to perform its own verification. It's a very time-consuming process and can lead to further oversights, DeAngelo said.
This year, the district received an $8,000 state grant to hire Julie Shemelia, an enumerator who examined the past three years of geographical problem areas.
"What I found most alarming is that 25 percent of filers who put Morrisville as their district in 2009 live in wealthier communities," said Shemelia.
This is a problem because funding formulas for state aid depend on the income of district residents, she said. In general, the higher the income level, the less financial aid a district can get.
In 2006, aid to Morrisville dipped because the district didn't correct for out-of-district filers, said DeAngelo. The reduction in aid affected special education and other programs, he said.
Neighboring Pennsbury typically has the most incorrect filings. More than 1,100 tax filers - 25 percent of residents - filed using Morrisville's school code in 2009.
Comparatively, those residents made up only 4 percent of Pennsbury's filers. It's a district of more than 26,000 households. Morrisville has just 3,191 addresses.
"You can see how the impact of accurate filing really affects a small school district," Shemelia said.
Other school districts that show up in Morrisville's tax files include Council Rock, Neshaminy and Bristol Township, as well as a smattering of addresses from other parts of Bucks County.
Morrisville has several zip codes that overlap with neighboring districts, making mistakes on tax forms more likely - especially if you don't have children in school, said Shemelia. A single household may make the same mistake over a period of decades by copying information from the prior year, she said.
DeAngelo has urged state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-10, to push the state for a lasting solution.
Simply informing taxpayers won't work, McIlhinney said.
"Because of overlap with zip codes, this would happen every year. You can educate people all you want, but if someone's working in New York City five days a week and comes home and fills out their tax return thinking they're living in Morrisville, that's what they're going to write," he said.
Going through the Act 80 review every year may be frustrating, but it's worth it, because otherwise Morrisville would lose its rightful share of state aid, he said.
"A good fix would be to give Morrisville one zip code and other areas like Lower Makefield (which belongs to Pennsbury) other zip codes. That's the easiest, cheapest solution, but it has to be done on the federal level," McIlhinney said.
