District to hire firm to collect school tax

The North Hills School District will use a third party to collect business privilege and mercantile taxes.

The school board Feb. 20 approved negotiating with turnKey Taxes Inc. to collect the taxes.

“Our way of building a taxpayer listing is pretty primitive, to be quite honest,” Jerry Muth, district business manager, said during the Feb. 6 work session. “Historically, we have relied pretty much on word of mouth.”

Mark Schuster, chief executive officer of turnKey Taxes, told board members at the work session that the company finds new businesses by working with property, utility and post office records.

“When you move into a town, the first thing you do is go to the post office because you want your mail, then utilities,” he said. “Everybody knows that you are in West View or in Ross except the people who need your money to fund the community.”

He said he once found six businesses within one Giant Eagle.

“When everybody communicates and is on the same page, nothing will fall through the cracks,” he said.

Mr. Schuster added that his clients have seen increases between 26% and 500% after one year.

The estimated annual cost for turnKey Taxes’ services is $6,000. The company also keeps 25% of the revenues that it uncovers.

Several Ross commissioners attended the Feb. 6 meeting to voice their support for turnKey Taxes.

Commissioner Jeremy Shaffer said Ross officials talked to Mr. Schuster three times but had no authority to hire him because the school district collects the taxes for both entities. He said many Ross properties are owned by out-ofstate landlords, who do not report their tenants, and some businesses are homebased.

Commissioner Dan DeMarco said the township will face some “big decisions” in the next five or six years, particularly regarding more funding for emergency services.

“We need to get this done. We need to soften whatever blows are coming down the pike when it comes to services like this. We are going to have to come up with more money,” he said. “This, to me, is a no-brainer.”