KCSD Hears Presentation from Berkheimer for Tax Collection

By Christopher Miller

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Keystone Central School Board heard a presentation from Berkheimer Digital Tax Solutions during a Public Hearing meeting Thursday for options to collect the Business Privilege Tax, Local Service Tax, and Real Estate Tax collections.

Rick Stover, the Client Development Executive for Berkheimer, was present to speak with the group and answer questions.

“We are the largest personal tax collector in Pennsylvania and represent and work with 2,600 municipalities and school districts in the state. We distributed $2.62 billion dollars to clients throughout the state last year.” 

“Our proposal outlines the commission rate at 1.75% for both current and delinquent collections for the Local Services Tax on a three year contract beginning January 1, 2026 and ending December 31, 2028 with postage not included in the quote. Our commission rate is 2.25% for current and delinquent taxes for the Business Privilege Tax with postage not included. 

For real estate taxes, Berkheimer’s compensation is based per bill. They handle all print mail sorting and their fee is $1 per line on a bill with each additional line billed at $0.25. Each payment posted incurs a $0.50 charge. Delinquency reminders are $1.25 plus the cost of postage.

A “line” on a real estate bill is considered to be the first line seen on a tax bill, billed at $1 per line.. Each line after that on a tax bill is an additional $0.25. 

Board member Chris Scaff asked for clarification on the opening of a local tax officer in the county.

“Absolutely we will,” Stover said. “I do not do that specifically, but we are working with the current tax office and someone from the real estate department will be reaching out to you. That is what we also quoted at the TCC meeting.”

Dr. Redmon asked if it was current practice to hire from the current tax office staff if anybody from that office would apply for the position.

“We would love to, they already know the county,” Rick said.

Rick ended his presentation saying that, “Berkheimer has an app that can be downloaded to file returns with 8,200 returns being filed through it in the past year. Also in the last year, 17,000 documents were uploaded and 313,000 documents were downloaded from their website.”

Keystone Collections Group was scheduled to present, but pulled their proposal saying that they “could not maintain a lower rate against Berkheimer.”

Board members Tom Cannon, Butch Knauff, and Elisabeth Lynch were not present.