Philadelphia Passes Tax Cuts and Breaks for Businesses and Residents

Philadelphia’s 2023 budget, passed by the City Council on June 23, will include tax cuts on business income and wages. The city’s business income and receipts tax rate will be reduced from 6.2 percent to 5.99 percent. Taxes on wages are being reduced as of July 1, 2022, for residents from 3.8398 percent to 3.79 percent, and for non-residents from 3.4481 to 3.44 percent. Mayor Jim Kenney heralded the changes to wage taxes, considered among the highest in the nation, as being reduced to their lowest levels in more than 50 years.

In a related move, the Council passed an ordinance designed to move the city toward market-based sourcing for business income and receipts taxes on sales of intangibles and services by providing exclusions for receipts on intangibles used outside the city limits.

Market-based sourcing generally taxes services based on where the benefit of the service is received. In moving toward market-based sourcing, service businesses in Philadelphia will only be required to pay business income and receipts tax on sales delivered to customers located within the city. Market-based sourcing is the trend in state and local taxation. The transition to market-based sourcing should help level the playing field for Philadelphia-based service providers with companies located outside of Philadelphia.

For more information on how rulings and legislation related to state and local taxes might impact your business, contact us at hbksalt@hbkcpa.com or visit our website here.