Centre County Government

• What's New
• Register of Wills
• Clerk of Orphans' Court
• Birth and Death Records
  

What's New

• NEW OPTION OFFERED BY PA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

  Requests for an extension of time to file a Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax Return may now be made at the following e-mail address: RA-InheritanceTaxExt@state.pa.us. Please contact the department at 717-787-8327 with any questions or concerns.

• NEW INHERITANCE TAX FORM, REV-1500
  MUST BE USED BEGINNING JULY 1, 2010

  Starting July 1, 2010, a revised REV-1500 Inheritance Tax Return for a

  resident decedent must be used to file with the Register of Wills office. The new REV-1500 is to be used for any deceased PA resident's estate, regardless of the decedent's date of death.

  The updated form will be available in PDF and fill-in format on the department's website, www.revenue.state.pa.us in early June. It can be distinguished from prior versions of the form by the following changes:

  • The revised form has no "Firm Name" line in thecorrespondent section on page 1.
  • There is no penalty lines on page 3.
  • The revised form and schedules feature no shaded areas.

  Older versions of the return and schedules submitted after July1, 2010 will be rejected by the Register of Wills office and returned to taxpayers.

  Tax practitioners are asked to discard prior versions of the form.

  Software vendors have been advised of the changes to REV-1500, however practitioners who prepare inheritance tax returns via vendor-produced software are encouraged to contact their software vendors to ensure the form upgrades will be available by July 1, 2010.

  The revisions were made to REV-1500 so that returns may be scanned and processed more effectively by the department.

  Questions regarding the revised REV-1500 can be directed to the Inheritance Tax Division at 717-787-8327.

• PA TAX AMNESTY PROGRAM

  Pennsylvania is offering a tax amnesty period from April 26 to June 18, 2010. During this limited 54 day timeframe, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue will waive 100 percent of penalties and half of the accrued interest for anyone who files and pays their delinquent state taxes with the promise of no prosecution. The PA Tax Amnesty program applies to all state taxes delinquent (including inheritance taxes) as of June 30, 2009.

  TO QUALIFY FOR TAX AMNESTY YOU MUST:

  1. Visit the PA Tax Amnesty Website at www.PaTaxPayUp.com.
     1. Create an Amnesty User ID and Password and log into the Amnesty application.
     2. Access your account information using your Amnesty PIN and complete taxpayer ID (employee identification number (EIN), social security number (SSN), etc.). This is partially provided on your "Notice of TaxAmnesty Program" that you may have received. You may receivemultiple amnesty notices and PIN's if delinquencies exist for multiple tax types.
     3. Review PA Department of Revenue records and compare them to your own.
     4. Complete the online PA Tax Amnesty application.
     5. Pay by June 18, 2010 all taxes and half of the interest due for all periods for which you did not file previously, or file amended returns for all unreported tax.

  Failure to take advantage of this limited time opportunity to resolve your state tax debt will result in an additional 5% non-participation penalty and other enforcement action.

  For more information, visit the PA Tax Amnesty Website at www.PaTaxPayUp.com or call toll free, 1-877-34-PAYUP (1-877-347-2987).

• INCREASE IN STATE FEES EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 8, 2009

  On October 9, 2009 Governor Rendell signed into law House Bill 1607 which became Act 49 of 2009. This Act adds additional filing fees to the current Judicial Computer System/Access to Justice (JCS/ATJ) fees. The new fees include a 25 month temporary surcharge of $11.25 on the JCS/ATJ fee, for the period beginning 12/8/09 to 01/07/12. In addition to that, a new permanent fee of $2.25 has been added, which is earmarked for the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account (CJEA).

  This results in a combined increase of $13.50, which will be added to the current $10.00 fee, bringing the total to $23.50.

  The actions that are impacted by this state fee increase are ALL new filings of Petitions for Grant of Letters and FIRST filings of other Petitions in the Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court office.

  Among those include first filings on Petitions for Settlement of Small Estates,

  Petitions for Adoptions, Guardianship Petitions for Minors and Incapacitated Persons and Inter Vivos Trusts.

  Please note that NO PART of this $23.50 fee is allocated to or appropriated by the Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court. The ENTIRE amount collected is remitted to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on a monthly basis.