The next time you request a photocopy of a marriage license, deed, or any other government record from your county row office, you might have to pay sales tax on it.
The state is looking at the possibility of collecting sales tax on copies of these documents, citing examples of private companies that have spent thousands of dollars on large volumes of copies, without paying any taxes on them.
For most individuals, this new enforcement might mean forking over a few extra cents per page. But some county row officers assert that collecting the sales tax would add an extra layer of bureaucracy to the process, forcing them to track taxable versus tax-exempt customers, re-publicize their new fee structures and purchase new equipment and software.
Pennsylvania's state sales tax has been in effect for more than 50 years, but it has never been applied to copies of government records and collected from government offices. The tax is 6 percent, except in Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, where it's 7 percent.
The sales tax issue will undoubtedly be the buzz of the yearly conference of the Pennsylvania Recorder of Deeds Association, which starts today in Pittsburgh.
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