Pennsylvania Sales And Use Tax

The state of Pennsylvania levies a 6% state sales tax on the retail sale, lease or rental of most goods and some services. Local jurisdictions impose additional sales taxes up to 2%. The range of total sales tax rates within the state of Pennsylvania is between 6% and 8%.

Use tax is also collected on the consumption, use or storage of goods in Pennsylvania if sales tax was not paid on the purchase of the goods. The use tax rate is the same as the sales tax rate. Returns are to be filed on or before the 20th day of the month following the month in which the purchases were made. For example, purchases made in the month of January should be reported to the state of Pennsylvania on or before the 20th day of February.
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TaxConnections Blogger Annette Nellen Posts about Rhode Island maybe dumping sales taxThe State of Rhode Island has a special legislative commission to study the possible repeal of sales tax! That should sound shocking since states with a sales tax typically generate at least 25% of their General Fund revenues from the sales tax. What might lead a state to consider dumping a longstanding revenue generator? Well, we do hear a lot about problems with the sales tax including:

♦ It’s eroding base of tangible personal property in a digital/services world of today.

♦ It’s tax gap generated from e-commerce and catalog sales where many vendors have physical presence (and thus tax collection obligations) in only one or just a few states.

I don’t think these problems are reasons to repeal the tax though, but instead to reform it.

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