Pittsburgh Controller's Office releases audit in response to tax collection delays

An audit of Pittsburgh’s Real Estate Division released Wednesday said the division should encourage taxpayers to make virtual payments, while City Council should do a better job of considering how new tax laws will be implemented.

The Pittsburgh City Controller’s Office audited the Department of Finance’s Real Estate Division in response to the lengthy delays in tax collection and processing last year.

“With covid and the hiring freeze, new technology and the late passage of the parks tax on City Council, this was a ‘perfect storm’ scenario,” Controller Michael Lamb said. “There are lessons we can learn to prevent issues like this from happening again.”

City Council passed the parks tax on December 28, 2020, and ordered the measure go into effect on January 1, 2021. When that measure passed, Lamb’s office said property tax bills had already been prepared. To comply with the new law and begin collecting the parks tax, officials had to calculate, print and mail an additional bill to every city property owner.

That doubled the workload for a short-staffed department and caused confusion for taxpayers, according to the controller’s report.

“City Council must consult the implementing department when it’s making laws,” Lamb said. “In this instance, the Department of Finance would have been able to shed light on the potential issues and likely encouraged Council to delay implementation.”

The audit also said it’s “past time” for the Department of Finance to encourage taxpayers to pay their bills online. Allegheny County already does so, and an online payment system would dramatically reduce the workload for the city’s Department of Finance, the report said. Because online payments would be deposited directly into a bank account, there would be no need for check processing, the audit said.