You and your spouse can report income on the same tax return if each individual is eligible to use PALite. However, tax information must be entered separately for each individual. Combining income or expenses (i.e., a joint filing) is not permitted.
If taxes are due, you will be asked to enter checking or savings account information for automatic payment, including your account number and your bank's transit/ABA routing number. The payment info is used only when you submit your return online. That is, if you decide to mail a paper copy of the return rather than submit it to the collector online, you will not pay online.
The person preparing the tax return must have a PALite account, with password and PIN. If you don't have an account yet, click Create New Account. If you do have an account, click Login and provide your email address, password, and PIN. Be sure to read and accept the terms and conditions of use.
Your email address is the preparer's unique username. The PALite system will communicate with you, when needed, by sending email messages to the address the preparer provided when setting up the account.
The system is confirming that you are an individual applying for a user account, and not a malicious computer program trying to break in. While your eyes can interpret these letters and digits, automated processes are unable to recognize them.
The two "words" you see may not be actual English words. If you can recognize the characters, type them as displayed.
Another pair of different words will be displayed for you to try again.
There may be a typographical error. Your email address must contain one @ character and one period following the @ character. If a message states that an account already exists for this email address, go back to individual.palite.org, choose the Login button for Existing users, and then click the link to reset your account. Existing password and PIN info will be sent to your email address.
You must choose a strong password that meets the password requirements shown on this screen and is not easily guessed.
The personal identification number (PIN) is a 4-digit number that the PALite system generates when you create an account. The PIN provides an additional level of security for protection of your data. Because an electronic record or transaction undertaken with your login information (email address, password and PIN) will be attributed to you, you must keep them secure. Do not disclose your Password or PIN to another person, nor allow another person to gain access to your Password and PIN.
The personal identification number (PIN) is a 4-digit number that the PALite system generates when you create an account. The PIN provides an additional level of security for protection of your data.
Please wait a few minutes and check for new messages again. Most email systems use a spam filter; check your Spam, Junk mail, Bulk mail, or Quarantine folder to see if the message from PALite was delivered there instead of your inbox. To ensure that future messages from PALite are delivered properly, add the following email address to your Contacts: accountinfo@PALite.org
Enter the email address of the person who created a PALite account for online filing. This person, called the preparer, may create and file tax returns for himself/herself, as well as spouse, child, parent, etc. Any status messages regarding the PALite account will be sent to the preparer's email address.
Your personal identification number must be generated by the system. Your PIN is sent immediately to the email address you entered when setting up your PALite account.
Enter the email address of the person who will prepare tax returns and receive information about each filing.
Go back to the page where existing users can log in, enter your email address, and click the link to reset your account. A link will be sent to your email address allowing you to reset your password and get a PIN reminder.
If you are not sure what the characters are, click the "Get a new challenge" button (with two arrows in a circle) and a different pair of words will be displayed. You may choose an audible cue instead, which consists of a voice dictating numbers over background noise, by clicking the "Get an audio challenge" button (with a speaker).
The personal identification number (PIN) is a 4-digit number that was sent to your email address when you created your PALite account.
On the Login page, you may click the link to reset your account. (If you are already logged in, click "Settings" in the menu bar and then click "Reset your password".) You will receive an email message with a link to a page where you can enter your new password.
On the Login page, you may click the link to reset your account. (If you are already logged in, click "Settings" in the menu bar and then click "Reset your password".) You will receive an email message with a link to a page where you can enter or change your password and then receive a copy of your PIN. (The PIN does not change.)
Your password must be at least 8 characters long AND contain:
If you came to this page only because you forgot your PIN, you may enter your existing password (twice). Or, you may change your password at this time if you wish. The new password must be strong enough to meet the password requirements.
If you are paid to prepare tax returns, you will be asked to provide the business name and address and federal EIN of your employer. If you are an individual not paid to prepare tax returns, you may use your individual account on PALite to prepare tax returns for others, such as family members.
In the event that the local tax collector needs to contact you with questions on one of your filings or the functioning of the PALite system, this information will give them several means to do so.
Either the system is temporarily offline, or your last action caused an unanticipated problem. Please try to repeat your action one time. You may want to close your browser window, then restart it. Login again, and come back to the point where the error occurred. Try to remember the action you were taking, and report any continued problem to your local tax collector.
In the event that the system went down unexpectedly, please try again in about 15 minutes.
Contact numbers are:
(814) 317-5335 Blair County Tax Collection Bureau
(570) 275-4720 Danville Area Earned Income Tax Office
(570) 327-5500 Municipal and School Earned Income Tax Office (Williamsport, Lycoming County)
(717) 334-4000 York Adams Tax Bureau (Gettysburg office)
(717) 845-1584 York Adams Tax Bureau (York office)
Any of the following documents from your Pennsylvania state income tax return:
On the Main Menu, simply click the "I am ready to file" button.
Find a return that you started previously in the grid on the Main Menu. You may click column headings to sort the grid. You also may press CTRL-F and enter a search string for a name you are trying to find. Then click the adjacent Edit button if you need to enter, review, or change any data. Click the adjacent File Return button if data entry is complete and you are ready to print the tax return or submit it for online filing.
Delete an existing return to clean the entry off the Main Menu grid. Although all sensitive information is encrypted, you may want to delete a return you started if you will not be completing your return online or if you choose to start over. A return filed online will be purged automatically 30 days after submission.
OR
Your return DOES qualify for online filing, but you did not submit it online after reviewing/printing the PDF document.
No.
Taxpayer A may be either the husband or the wife.
If both spouses lived in the same household for the entire tax year, both your tax return preparation and the collector's processing of the return are expedited by spouses filing together. In the event that one spouse qualifies for a refund, the amount may be applied to any taxes due from the other spouse.
Yes. Anyone aged 16 or older and not retired must file each year, whether or not he/she had income.
This information is of interest to the member taxing authorities (your municipality and school district).
If the collector has any question on the tax return, a couple of ways to contact the taxpayer will allow the return to be processed more quickly. Enter your daytime phone number with area code and hyphens. For example, 717-123-1234
The Tax Return Checklist at the left side of this screen uses green check marks to show which parts of the tax return you have completed. You can click on any of the Steps in the checklist to go back to that screen and modify your entries.
All fields are required except Address Line 2 and Address Line 3.
This list includes all of the school districts whose taxes are collected by members of the PALite local tax cooperative. If you resided, for any portion of the tax year, in an area outside the PALite local tax cooperative, choose “Not Listed” from the top of both the School District and Municipality lists. You must file additional tax returns with other agencies for earnings while you resided there.
After you choose a school district, the list of municipalities shows only those municipalities inside the selected school district. Be sure you have selected the proper school district.
Be sure you have selected the proper school district. Only the municipalities in the selected school district are displayed. If you resided, for any part of the tax year, in a school district that is not on this list, choose “Not Listed”. You must file additional tax returns with other agencies for earnings while you resided there.
Before proceeding to the next page, you must enter the address(es) where you resided for all 12 months of the tax year. Click the Edit or Save Address button to make changes before moving to the next page.
In the event that you moved to a different collector’s jurisdiction after December 31, the local tax collector wants to remove you from their tax rolls and update their records. Also, if a tax refund is due, it will be mailed to your current address.
This list includes all of the school districts in Pennsylvania. If you moved after December 31, you are asked to select your current school district so that the collector can update your record in the tax rolls. However, if you moved out of Pennsylvania, you should choose the "Out of State or Not Listed" check box.
You may use PALite to prepare your tax return even if you have no W-2 forms. Simply click the Next button and then click OK when prompted to continue.
This version of the PALite system allows you to enter multiple W2 forms from the same employer only if the taxpayer lived at the same address for the entire tax year. If either taxpayer moved AND has more than one W2 form with the same EIN in box (b), PALite cannot be used to prepare the tax return form. In these cases, personnel at your local tax office can assist you with proper calculation of your tax liability.
If you have already entered some information for a W-2 form, find the W-2 in the grid on the W-2 Earnings Summary page, then click the adjacent Edit button to review your entries and/or make any changes. Click the adjacent Delete button to remove the W-2 from the tax return. If you have a W-2 form that is not yet entered on the current taxpayer's return, click the Add W-2 button and enter the data from the boxes of the printed form.
Some conditions cause the system to calculate taxable gross earnings from the figures on the W-2. These include:
Some conditions cause the system to calculate total tax withholdings from the figures on the W-2(s). These include:
You should click the Edit button adjacent to your W-2 listed on the screen and ensure that you typed the numbers exactly as they appear in each box of your W-2 form.
Be advised that the gross wage amount and tax withholding amount will be reviewed by your collector's tax audit staff, who may contact you if your actual tax liability differs from the amount shown on this return. If for any reason the tax is not paid when due, penalty and interest will be charged. You may elect to file a standard paper return with the proper bureau(s) if the computations of this system do not agree with yours. Simply return to the Main Menu without submitting the online filing.
When you file online, you will not submit any paper documents. Therefore, entries here fulfill the taxpayer's requirement to file a copy of all W-2 forms.
You should ask your employer for a corrected W-2 form before filing your tax return. If that is not possible, please enter the information as it appears on the W-2 form.
In most cases, you can leave the corresponding box on the screen empty or $0.00. The only exception is box 15, in which you should enter “PA” if the wages were earned in PA. At this time, you may not use PALite to file a return if you earned wages in another state.
Type the updated amounts on the Form W-2C rather than the amounts from your original W-2 form.
The Employer Identification Number is always a 9-digit number, often found in box (b) of the W-2 form. It may appear as a single string of nine digits, but you must enter it as two digits followed by a hyphen and the remaining seven digits.
Type at least three lines of data into the box, including the name, street address, city, state, and zip. Use the ENTER key on your keyboard to move to the next line.
No. An amount (typically less than $100) withheld for emergency or local services tax may not be credited to your earned income tax liability. If your employer reported such withholdings in boxes 16 through 19 of your W-2, please omit those amounts when completing this screen.
Total all tips and taxable earnings reported on form 1099-MISC, form 1099-C, or form 1099-R (excluding CODES 3, 4 and 7). DO NOT report capital gains or dividends, interest on savings or investments, or PA Unemployment Compensation.
If you had other earned income in excess of $10,000.00, you will not be able to file your local tax return online; instead, you will print and mail it along with the forms 1099.
You should include allowable non-reimbursed expenses as calculated on PA Schedule UE.
You can find the form and completion instructions on the PA Department of Revenue website,
http://www.revenue.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/revenue_home/
If you had non-reimbursed business expenses, you will be prompted to upload the PDF form of Schedule UE before submitting your local tax return online. If you are unable to upload the schedule in PDF format, you must print and mail the return along with your Schedule UE.
Use PA Schedule C, F, RK-1 and/or NRK-1, G, I, or J may be used to calculate net loss from business, farm, or profession. Do not include S Corp loss.
You can find the forms and completion instructions on the PA Department of Revenue website,
http://www.revenue.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/revenue_home/
If you had a net loss, you will be prompted to upload the PDF form of PA Schedule C, F, RK-1, NRK-1, G, I, or J before submitting your local tax return online. If you are unable to upload the schedule in PDF format, you must print and mail the return along with the appropriate schedules.
Use PA Schedule C, F, RK-1 and/or NRK-1, G, I, or J is used to calculate net profits from business, farm, or profession. Do not include S Corp profits.
You can find the forms and completion instructions on the PA Department of Revenue website,
http://www.revenue.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/revenue_home/
If you had net profits, you will be prompted to upload the PDF form of Schedule C (PA Schedule F, RK-1 and/or NRK-1, G, I, or J is also acceptable) before submitting your local tax return online. If you are unable to upload the schedule in PDF format, you must print and mail the return along with the appropriate schedules.
Your PDF file(s) should be version 1.7 (Acrobat 9.x) compatible or earlier. You can verify the version of your PDF file(s) by opening the file(s) with Adobe Reader and select File --> Properties from the menu bar at the top of the Adobe Reader window.
A hardcopy schedule that you have scanned to PDF is acceptable.
Your S-Corp income helps the auditor to understand differences between your state taxable income and your local taxable income. Providing this figure can help avoid questions and correspondence when your return is reviewed.
If you are self-employed or your employer does not withhold local taxes, and you have been paying individual earned income tax on a quarterly basis, enter the total of all payments Q1 through Q4 for the tax year just ended.
The amount of a taxpayer's pre-payment is not disclosed unless the taxpayer appears in person, with photo ID, at the tax collector's office.
Enter any tax overpayment from the previous tax year that you chose to transfer to the current tax year.
Tax paid to the City of Philadelphia, as shown on the W-2 form or as reported to the City of Philadelphia, may be deducted from your local tax liability. The Philadelphia credit may not exceed your local tax liability on the wages earned in Philadelphia.
If you also paid taxes to another state, the lesser of the two amounts (Philadelphia tax or out of state tax) will be used to compute the local tax credit.
If a state other than Pennsylvania taxed your adjusted gross income, you can deduct from your local tax liability the tax amount you paid to the other state in excess of your Pennsylvania state income tax liability. You will be required to submit a copy of the out of state filing and the PA Schedule G.
If you also paid taxes in the City of Philadelphia, the lesser of the two amounts (Philadelphia tax or out of state tax) will be used to compute the local tax credit.
You have finished entering all required information and calculations are complete. If during the tax year, you moved among municipalities collected by different PALite-participating collectors, you will see a tab for each participating collector. Review the figures on each tab for each taxpayer. The system has computed:
Your return is not yet filed. If you do not agree with the figures shown on this screen, you can go back to any of the previous screens and make necessary corrections. If everything on this screen is accurate, click Data Entry Complete to see instructions for filing. If special notations on your W-2 cause you to disagree with the calculated Gross Earnings, you may quit the online filing process and instead file a paper return along with your documentation.
If your municipality levies another tax (such as flat rate occupational tax), that tax is deducted from your earned income tax (EIT) refund.
Your Refund (Line 16) is calculated using this formula:
Subtract EIT Tax Liability (Line 9) from Total Credits (Line 15). If this amount is greater than one dollar, subtract the "Other" Tax (Line 19).
The Tax Return Checklist at the left side of this screen shows which parts of the return you have completed. You can click on any one of the Tax Return Steps to go back to that screen and modify your entries.
You can get a PDF form with fillable fields from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue website. Alternately, you can scan a paper copy of each required schedule to PDF format. Either type of PDF file can be uploaded to PALite.
If either taxpayer entered Employee Business Expenses, a copy of the PA Schedule UE is needed. Browse to the completed PDF version you have saved on your computer. If either taxpayer entered Net Profit or Net Loss, a copy of the PA Schedule C is needed. (PA Schedule F, RK-1 and/or NRK-1, G, I, or J is also acceptable.) Browse to the completed PDF version you have saved on your computer.
Once a PDF file has been successfully uploaded, a Delete button and a View button appear next to the Browse button. Click the View button to view the uploaded file and make a printout if you wish.
In order to submit your tax filing online, electronic copies of your schedules are needed. If you cannot supply PDF versions, you will print your tax form and mail it to the collector along with paper copies of the schedules.
Yes. If you have a balance due but chose the “Mail a Check” option, follow the instructions on the cover sheet to mail your check (along with the voucher included in the downloaded tax return form). Be aware that penalties and interest will be applied to any payment received after the tax due date.
No. When you review the tax return and click "Data Entry Complete," you will see filing instructions.
OR
From the PALite Main Menu, find your return in the grid, and click the adjacent File Return button. At that time, the system will indicate whether you can file online or will have to print the tax return for mailing to your local tax collector.
Yes. Use the link in the Tax Return Checklist to go back to the first Personal Info screen. At the question regarding "How many taxpayers are filing on this return," select 2. Click the Next button as needed to bypass the screens for taxpayer A, and then fill in new entries for Taxpayer B.
On the "Enter Your Social Security Number" screen, enter the taxpayer SSN, check the declaration box, and click the Next button. On the "Almost Done" screen, click the Download button to open the PDF return, which you can then print or save.
OR
On the PALite Main Menu screen, find your return in the grid. Click the adjacent File Return button or the Print button. You will be able to Download the tax return generated in PALite, along with instructions for mailing. You can then print or save the return on your computer.
If you choose not to pay the Balance due via ACH debit from your checking or savings account, you must mail your check. Download the return and print it, along with its payment voucher and instruction sheet. Mail the voucher with your check.
If you choose not to submit your return online, you may print and mail the return and all supporting documentation to the tax collector. Choose No when asked if you would like to proceed with online filing. Then click Next to enter your SSN before printing the documents with no PALite Electronic Filing watermark.
If you choose not to submit your return online, you may print and mail the return and all supporting documentation to the tax collector. At the "Almost Done" screen, instead of clicking "Submit My Returns to Collector", click the Main Menu link near the top of the screen. On the Main Menu, clilck the File Return button adjacent to your return. Pick "No" when asked to "Proceed with online filing". You must re-enter your social security number(s), download the PDF, and print a clean copy (without watermark) to mail to the tax collector.
Whether you are using PALite to file online or to prepare your printed tax return, you must read the e-Signature agreement and supply taxpayers' Social Security Number(s) in order to finalize the return. Taxpayer is certifying that the information being provided is correct. The collector agrees to treat the online submission as if it were a signed document from the taxpayer.
The option "No payment is due" is pre-selected. Simply click Next on this screen.
If you have no tax balance due, please choose the option "No payment is due" and click Continue.
To view or print the return, choose Open. Your return will display in an Adobe Reader window (or other PDF reader used on your computer). Use the your reader's Print function to print the return. If you want to save an electronic copy of the return, you can choose Save. Then browse for the local file folder in which you want to save your copy of the PDF file.
Click the "Main Menu" link in the menu bar near the top of the page. Once on the Main Menu, click the Edit button next to your return.
You should still file your return before the tax due date. Choose "I Will Mail a Check" and click Continue. When processing your return, tax collector personnel will correspond with you regarding any balance due.
When you file online by clicking "Submit My Returns to the Collector" button, you can login to PALite in a few days to check your return status. On the Main Menu, the Status will change from "Submitted to Tax Collector" to "Collector Acknowledged Receipt of Return." However, if you print returns to file by mail, no acknowledgement will be displayed on PALite.
After making any of these changes to your web browser, close all open web browsers and restart the browser. If you do not find your web browser version below, search your web browser’s Help documentation or check the manufacturer’s web site for instructions.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x, 7.x, 8.x (Windows)The tax collector needs to see a copy of the orders or other proof of active military service that indicates whether the service was within the Commonwealth of PA (taxable) or outside the commonwealth (exempt). Once you have finished, you will have to print and mail your tax return(s), along with said documentation, to the appropriate collector(s).