Lansford resolves question on tax records of business

A question raised at a special Lansford Borough Council meeting Monday about whether a business is up-to-date on its taxes has been resolved.

Council on Monday agreed to review the tax records after receiving a letter from its Earned Income and LST tax collector, Berkheimer Tax Administrators. The letter said a company, Jet Data, had claimed no employees since late 2008.

After researching the Berkheimer letter, borough secretary Nicole Tessitore said she requested information as to whether the taxes had been received from Jet Data's "from the other business names. (JC Data Enterprises, ASI Employer Solutions, All Staffing). We received the response immediately. It appeared as Jet Data outsourced all of their employee functions to All Staffing. All Staffing had indeed been reporting to Berkheimer for LST/EIT. They are on file and reported 33 employees for 2009 for LST. The recent move to Lehighton for Innovative Employer Solutions (the new business name) will impact the borough by approximately $1,700 annually," she said Tuesday.

The borough plans to review the tax records to get a clearer picture of who is - or isn't - paying their taxes.

Council on Monday adopted a 2010 budget that calls for a 4.30 mill real estate tax increase. Among the factors fueling the increase was an 83 percent tax collection rate.