Philadelphia improves tax collection efforts, but millions still overdue

Philadelphia is making some progress on collecting back taxes.

That’s the word from Philadelphia Revenue Commissioner Clarena Tolson who told City Council her office is doing its best to collect every dollar that is available in back taxes.

“We are collecting more, more aggressively going after all of those properties.” she said. “There are no smoke and mirrors in this.”

Changes in legislation and more money for collections have resulted in $16 million more for the School District of Philadelphia, but Tolson said millions more remain uncollected.

“This problem was not created in a year, or even the past decade, and cannot be solved overnight,” she said. “But we are putting into place programs and tools that will change the revenues collections landscape for decades to come.”

A new computer system under development should help with locating and collecting more money from tax deadbeats, she said.