Pennsylvania Sales Tax Compliance

Pennsylvania Tax Article

Pennsylvania sales tax compliance is not super complicated, but there are a couple of details you'll want to pay attention to when filing your taxes. Pennsylvania has a statewide sales tax rate of 6% and does not offer reduced rates. Due to this, businesses can expect to collect and remit a 6% sales tax rate on purchases they make, unless they are in a county with a varied tax rate.

Pennsylvania Sales Tax

Pennsylvania will set up taxpayers to file their taxes in one of three frequencies: monthly, quarterly, and semi-annually. When it comes to monthly and quarterly filings, Pennsylvania sales tax compliance requires all taxpayers to file their returns by the 20^th of the following reporting period. For those who are filing semi-annually, the due date varies depending on the time of year. From January to June, the due date will fall on August 20^th. For the second half of the year (July through December), be ready to file by February 20^th. If the tax return due date falls on a weekend or national holiday, then the correct due date will get pushed back to the following business day.

In addition, Pennsylvania sales tax compliance requires some accelerated payments or pre-payments. Businesses with tax liabilities between $25,000 and $100,000 per quarter have two choices available to them. They can either choose to pay 50% of what they paid for that same month in the previous calendar year, or they can calculate an estimate of what their monthly liabilities will be and pay 50% of that amount. Businesses with a tax liability of more than $100,000 per quarter need to pay 50% of the sales & use taxes that they paid in the same month of the previous year.

Fortunately, the state of Pennsylvania does offer timely filing discounts. For monthly filings, the discount is $25 or 1% of the tax collected, depending on whichever is less. For those filing quarterly, the discount is $75 or 1% (also whichever is less). For semi-annual filings, the discount is, similarly, $150 or 1%.

Calculating the vendor discount and one’s pre-payments is probably the most difficult part of Pennsylvania’s sales tax compliance. However, these factors are automatically calculated when you file online! Along with that, Pennsylvania does have local taxing jurisdictions with varied rates, so those can be a bit tricky to remember. The local jurisdiction sales tax rate will only be 1 or 2%. There are two local taxing jurisdictions with varied rates: Allegheny County adds an extra 1%, and Philadelphia County adds 2%.

If you are curious to learn more information about Pennsylvania sales tax compliance, make sure to visit  Pennsylvania’s sales tax website.



Manufacturing companies in Pennsylvania may be eligible for sales tax exemptions on certain purchases related to their operations. Learn more about these exemptions in our PA Sales Tax Exemptions blog.

Pennsylvania Sales Tax Compliance Services

Agile’s experienced sales tax consultants can help by completing your company’s ongoing compliance filings in the state of Pennsylvania. In fact, we’ve offered an outsourcing solution for this process since 2005. You can learn more about our outsourced sales tax compliance services or simply give us a call at (888) 350-4829. We are interested to learn more about your needs, and you might be surprised how little it will cost to have a sales tax expert take this responsibility off your hands!