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Municipalities Extend Real Estate Tax Payment Deadlines

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With federal, state and local earned income tax filing and payment deadlines already extended to July 15, Centre County municipalities are also extending the payment deadline for local real estate property taxes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday night, State College Borough Council, Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors and Bellefonte Borough Council each approved measures to extend payment of real estate taxes at face value from June 30 through September. Under normal circumstances, a 10 percent penalty is assessed on late payments after June 30, but that penalty will not be assessed on property taxes paid by Sept. 30. 

The Centre County Board of Commissioners instituted the extension on county real estate taxes at its April 7 meeting and asked municipalities to consider following suit.

Harris Township supervisors approved the extension at their meeting last week, Patton Township supervisors will consider it at their meeting on Wednesday and Halfmoon Township supervisors will do the same on Thursday. College Township Council does not meet next until May 7.

Each municipality typically collects the majority of its real estate tax payments during a 2 percent discount period ending April 30. The discount period remains unchanged.

According to State College’s ordinance enacting the extension for 2020 only, the measure ‘recognizes that the finances of many taxpayers of the municipality will be negatively affected by the closure of local businesses, layoffs of employees, and uncertainty in the financial markets.

‘The municipality desires to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 on municipality taxpayers by using its statutory discretion to reduce penalties for late tax payments beyond the Face Date for a period of three months or until September 30, 2020.’