Personal Tax Calculator for
The School Property Tax Elimination Act (SPTEA)
See the difference this legislation can
make in your total tax bill!
NEW! The SPTEA Calculator now includes calculations for Philadelphia residents.
The SPTEA tax
calculator is an independently developed Microsoft Excel application that
will give you a projection of your total school tax liability under the
provisions of House Bill 1275, the School Property Tax Elimination Act
(SPTEA), the school property tax elimination plan that is supported by
the PTCC and PCTA. The calculations include the average increase in sales
taxes through a broadened tax base and an increase of 0.85% in the state
personal income tax (PIT). The SPTEA will eliminate ALL school property,
local school EIT, and school nuisance levies such as per capita and occupational
taxes. If you have not yet read the provisions of this plan, an overview
of the School Property Tax Elimination Act is available here.
The calculator has been set up to account for everything from the effect it will have on a person's federal income tax (since there would be no longer be property tax to deduct) to low income taxpayers who are eligible for Personal Income Tax (PIT) forgiveness from Pennsylvania.
Other items that are included:
• If someone is a renter looking to buy, they can choose a school district where they plan to buy and it will show them how much their buying power is increased under the SPTEA based on the school district where they live (due to elimination of school property tax).
• For low income taxpayers, it calculates the state PIT tax forgiveness if it applies. This offsets most, and in many instances all, of the 0.85% increase in the state PIT under the SPTEA for many low income taxpayers.
• For low income seniors who rent, it not only calculates the state PIT tax forgiveness, it also lets them know that the SPTEA includes an increase in the rent rebate which may offset part or all of any increase calculated due to the fact that they do not own a home. The increase in the rent rebate is part of the SPTEA for low income seniors. It will be funded by the portion of the current plan that used to apply to offset property tax for low income seniors. Since the SPTEA eliminates school property tax, that portion will be used to increase the rent rebate portion for low income seniors.
Simply complete the applicable boxes on the left side of the sheet. Your total taxes under the School Property Tax Elimination Act will be displayed in the box on the right. If you've had any doubts about supporting the School Property Tax Elimination Act, this will certainly convince you!
The calculator may be run directly from this site or downloaded for later use. If you download the calculator, please feel free to distribute it to your friends and family so that they, too, may calculate their SPTEA school taxes.
Our thanks to Rick Ritter of the Coatesville Taxpayers Alliance for researching the data and building this calculator.
NOTE: If you can't run the calculator because you don't have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer, please download the FREE suite of office tools from OpenOffice.org. This excellent collection of tools includes a spreadsheet, word processor, presentation program, and database manager that are all fully Microsoft Office compatible. Click on the logo below to go to the OpenOffice.org download site.
Please subscribe to the PTCC e-mail newsletter to receive up-to-date information about the School Property Tax Elimination Act and suggestions for what you can do to help achieve its enactment. Click here.