Kenney working on plan to collect overdue Philly business taxes

A move is underway to collect overdue business taxes in Philadelphia, but it could take a while. 

About $70 million in Business Income and Receipts Taxes are overdue in Philadelphia and Mayor Jim Kenney says his team is working on a way to sell off the debts.  Then private interests who buy the debts work on collecting.

“The revenue department will launch a feasibility analysis to evaluate whether selling these debts to a third party  is a more effective approach for all or some of these accounts,” he said.

CIty Councilman Alan Domb worked on the idea with the mayor, which has already been done for uncollected real estate taxes.

“Better collections will have a snowball effect, when taxpayers truly believe the city will collect what is owed the delinquency will decline,” Domb said.

 Kenney says the effort is not a replacement for his proposed sugary drinks tax, and could take a year or more to see any results.