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The Senate Finance Committee unanimously voted to advance on legislation (S.B. 476) that would change a state law (Act 48 of 2009) that requires businesses to remit two monthly sales tax payments to the state beginning May 21, 2011.

If Act 48 goes into effect, Pennsylvania would be the only state in the nation to require two sales tax returns per month. Businesses will have the shortest deadline of any state to file and remit sales tax, just 10 days to file each return. Additionally, the Revenue Department and businesses would have to perform double the work to process semi-monthly returns, and larger corporations would incur substantial expense to create new data retrieval and reporting systems just for their Pennsylvania operations.

Senate Bill 476 would require one payment on the 20th of each month that consists of an estimated tax for the current month equal to 55 percent of the tax they collected and remitted for the same month in the previous year and then the remainder of tax due for prior month, after deduction of any estimated tax previously remitted.

Several states have adopted similar remittance systems that require a filer to remit one payment that includes the estimated tax for the current month and a true-up payment for the prior month. These “estimated payment” systems have been adopted by Ohio, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

Senate Bill 476 would still provide the accelerated revenue to the state's General Fund -- which was the purpose of Act 48 -- but would eliminate the burden of two payments.

Securing a legislative solution to Act 48 has been a priority for the PA Chamber, which worked closely with Sen. Patrick Browne, R-Lehigh, last session and this session in drafting the measure. The PA Chamber recently sent a memo to committee members urging them to advance the legislation.

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Founded in 1916, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is the state's largest broad-based business association, with its membership comprising businesses of all sizes and across all industry sectors. The PA Chamber is The Statewide Voice of Business.