Who needs to file Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments (Declarations) with Centre Tax Agency?

Any full- or part-year resident of the Centre County Tax Collection District who expects to make more than $12,000 of net profit income during the tax year is required by law (Pennsylvania Act 32 of 2008) to remit local Earned Income Tax (EIT) payments on a quarterly basis to the Centre Tax Agency. Payments must be made by the last day of the month that follows the close of the quarter (i.e. April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31), and the sum of the payments should be equal to or greater than 90% of the total tax liability for the current tax year OR 100% of the total tax liability for the prior tax year. Penalties and interest will be assessed if quarterly payments are not made in a timely manner.

These requirements for making quarterly estimated tax payments also apply to taxpayers who expect to earn at least $12,000 in wages from employment where the employer does not withhold the full amount of Local Earned Income Tax that is due.

FARMERS: If at least two-thirds of your gross income for the tax year is from farming, you may do one of the following:

Pay all of the estimated tax by January 31 of the succeeding year, or

File the final local tax return for the tax year by March 1 of the succeeding year and pay the total tax due. In this case, quarterly estimated payments are not required.

Who cannot file with Centre Tax Agency?

Centre County residents who resided in the Townships of Taylor, Curtin, Liberty, and Rush, along with residents of Philipsburg Borough, cannot file their local Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments with Centre Tax Agency.  While these municipalities are located wholly in Centre County, their respective school districts are split between multiple counties. Therefore, per Pennsylvania Act 32 of 2008, and for local Earned Income Tax purposes only, residents of these municipalities must file their quarterly estimated tax payments with the Tax Collection Districts specified below:

• Taylor Township – Blair County Tax Collection District
• Curtin & Liberty Townships – Clinton County Tax Collection District
• Rush Township & Philipsburg Borough – Clearfield County Tax Collection District

Is there a way for spouses to file combined quarterly estimated tax payments?

No. Each individual must file their own quarterly estimated tax payments based on their anticipated earned income and tax liability.

Is there a fee to file electronically?

Centre Tax Agency offers this electronic filing option free of charge to taxpayers. Payment can be made in person, by mail, or by using one of the available electronic payment options. If a taxpayer elects to pay by authorizing an ACH debit from a bank account, there is no fee for the transaction. Please note, however, that if for any reason a payment is returned by the depository bank, a fee will be assessed to recover the cost of processing the returned item(s). The other electronic payment options are administered by our third-party vendor, ACI Payments, Inc. (ACI), formerly Official Payments Corporation (OPC). ACI does charge a fee for their services. If you have questions about paying electronically, please contact the tax office for additional information.

Applicable Penalty, Interest and Fees (Other Charges)

Penalty and interest charges will be assessed on any tax due that is paid after the due date. Penalty is calculated at 1% per month, and interest is calculated at a daily rate set by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Additional collection costs may be incurred if the unpaid tax remains outstanding.

If the taxpayer fails to file quarterly estimated payments and instead pays the tax due in full with the final EIT return, the total amount of tax paid will be divided into 4 equal parts, and penalties and interest will be assessed based on when the quarterly payments were originally due.

A note about rounding

You may enter all numbers in dollars and cents. Since the system has been designed to comply with Pennsylvania Act 32 of 2008, all numbers will be rounded off to whole dollars.

What has been done to protect confidential information?

The tax agency has consulted with security and industry professionals to ensure that steps have been taken to safely guard personal information and to retain it in a format that protects it from outside sources. The electronic filing system is also protected by 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, the industry standard for online banking and trading.

Disclaimer on Site Use

This site requires a current browser with Javascript and cookies enabled to access our eFiling properly. The site supports Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 10 or later, and Microsoft Edge. Other browsers and browsers without Javascript and cookies enabled will see graphical errors or may be denied access completely. The reporting functions on the site require a PDF Reader. 

The use of this system, as with all Internet usage, may pose a risk of damage to user computer systems because of the presence of computer viruses, software and hardware incompatibility or defects, and other factors associated with the use of the Internet. Users of this system assume all risks associated with its use, including the risk that damage may occur to user computer systems, software or data stored on or contained in user computer systems. The State College Borough, doing business as Centre Tax Agency, will not be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other damages based upon any use of this payment system or use of any Web site to which this site is linked.

The State College Borough doing business as Centre Tax Agency disclaims all responsibility and liability for any damages, including loss of use, loss of profits, business interruption, procurement of substitute goods or services, and loss of revenues caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission of information or data, communication line failure, computer virus, theft, destruction, unauthorized access or alteration regardless of whether for negligence, breach of contract, or any other cause of action.