Deadline for property tax payment extended

County officials voted to extend the deadline for payment of property taxes due to the economic impact of the virus.

WEST CHESTER » The Chester County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously at this week’s public Commissioners’ Meeting to extend the deadline for payment of county property taxes due to the economic impact of the coronavirus.

Recognizing that the finances of many Chester County taxpayers have been negatively affected by the closure of local businesses, layoffs and uncertainty of financial markets instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the commissioners voted to waive any fees or penalties on taxes paid in their entirety by July 31, 2020.

The commissioners’ ability to enact the tax deadline extension is a result of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Act 15 of 2020, signed into law by Gov. Wolf on April 20th. Act 15 of 2020 allows taxing authorities such as Chester County that impose taxes on the assessed value of real property, to provide relief to taxpayers.

Work by the county’s Department of Information Services has technically enabled this deadline extension to 2020 county property taxes to occur. The deadline relief is provided as a response to the COVID-19 crisis, and is not intended to apply to any prior or subsequent tax years. Taxpayers do not have do anything to take advantage of this extension; any payments, in full, received by July 31, 2020 will be credited as being paid on-time.

The county’s technical system modifications also allows for tax deadline extensions for those local municipalities that currently contract with the Chester County Treasurer’s Office for the collection of local municipality taxes. Residents of municipalities that contract with the County Treasurer’s Office should check to see if their municipality is enacting the option to extend the deadline for payment of municipal taxes.