How Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program will impact first-time filers
Gov. Josh Shapiro was in Pittston this week to talk about his effort to expand child and dependent care tax credits and increases in the Property Tax/Rent Rebate programs.
With Shapiro’s expansion of Pennsylvania’s Property Tax/Rent Rebate (PTRR) program, there are thousands of older Pennsylvanians and people with disabilities who are now eligible for the first time.
The Department of Revenue is encouraging everyone who is newly eligible for the PTRR program to submit their applications as soon as possible. Doing so will help the Department more quickly verify and process applications from first-time applicants, who are required to submit supporting documentation to verify their age and eligibility.
“The Governor rightfully recognized there was a pressing need to increase the program’s income limits for the first time since 2006,” Secretary of Revenue Pat Browne said. “We will move as quickly as possible to process every rebate application, but we are encouraging all eligible applicants—and especially first-time filers—to submit their applications as soon as they have all the necessary information and documentation in hand.”
What should first-time filers expect?
When someone files for PTRR for the first time, DOR takes additional steps to verify the applicant’s information is accurate to prevent fraud and ensure that rebates are going out only to those who are eligible. Specific examples of required documentation for first-time filers are listed in this year’s instruction booklet for the Property Tax/Rent Rebate program.
The Department is committed to being responsible stewards of this vital program and of taxpayer dollars, including protecting against fraud.
When will I get my rebate?
Rebate payments for the PTRR program are typically distributed starting on July 1. Due to the historic expansion signed into law by Governor Shapiro, DOR expects an unprecedented number of Pennsylvanians to apply for this program in 2024. While DOR will move as quickly as possible to process every rebate application, first-time filers should anticipate that it may take additional time to review their rebate applications.
First-time filers who have filed by June 1, 2024 should expect to receive their rebates between July 1 and September 1, 2024. Some rebates may take additional time if DOR needs to correct or verify any information on a rebate application. This time frame for first-time filers’ rebates is only for this year, due to the expansion resulting in a high number of new applicants.
The best way to ensure you receive your rebate on time is by filing as soon as possible at myPATH.pa.gov, and opting to receive your payment via direct deposit. Applicants can also receive a paper application by calling 1-888-222-9190.
File your application through myPATH
The Department strongly encourages all PTRR applicants to file their applications online by visiting myPATH (mypath.pa.gov). This is a user-friendly system that provides instant confirmation that an application has been successfully filed, allows access to automatic calculators, reduces errors, and includes other helpful features to assist in expediting the filing of an application.
myPATH also features a Spanish version of the online application for the first time this year to assist Spanish-speaking applicants.
Rebates processed as quickly as possible
Department of Revenue has been preparing for the unprecedented number of applicants and working to ensure the Shapiro Administration can deliver for Pennsylvanians.
Specifically, the Department has:
Added additional full-time staff and is working to hire an additional 25 temporary staff.
Stationed DOR staff at Area Agencies on Aging and senior centers throughout the Commonwealth to deliver direct in-person support to eligible Pennsylvanians and to help Pennsylvanians limit errors when applying.
Made system improvements to better utilize existing functions within myPATH to validate eligibility for first-time filers.
Changed myPATH to prevent common errors from being allowed when filling out the application.
About the PTRR expansion
More Pennsylvanians will qualify and — at the same time — the vast majority who qualified in prior years will see their rebates increase. This is the first time the program has been expanded since 2006. The expansion:
Increases the maximum standard rebate from $650 to $1,000.
Increases the income cap from $35,000 to $45,000 for homeowners.
Increases the income cap from $15,000 to $45,000 for renters.
Automatically increases the income cap to grow with inflation in years to come.
PTRR eligibility
The rebate program benefits eligible Pennsylvanians age 65 and older; widows and widowers age 50 and older; and people with disabilities age 18 and older.
Rep. Meuser introduces bill holding
‘ideological prosecutors’ accountable
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, this week introduced H.R. 6999 — the Holding Prosecutors Accountable Act.
This legislation seeks to force weak-on-crime prosecutors to do their jobs and uphold our state and federal laws.
The legislation proposes that prosecutors’ offices that fail to prosecute at least 67% of violent crime arrests would lose eligibility for Department of Justice Byrne Grants, the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions.
“Increasingly in our country’s major cities, ideological prosecutors are allowing criminals to go unpunished,” Meuser said. “For example, in our nation’s capital, Washington, DC, only 44% of arrests were prosecuted in FY23. Shockingly, a 44% prosecution rate in DC is in-fact higher than the prosecution rate in nine of the last 10 years in the city. In FY22, the prosecution rate in Washington was just 33%.”
Additionally, Meuser said the legislation would require prosecutors’ offices that serve jurisdictions larger than 380,000 people to publish their prosecution rate data on an annual basis. Most jurisdictions do not make such data public, and the American people have the right to know how many criminals their local, often elected, prosecutor is releasing without pursuing charges.
“Perhaps the greatest responsibility of a government is to assure the safety and well-being of its citizens,” Meuser said. “But far too often in recent years, woke prosecutors have failed to pursue charges against criminals that police officers have often risked their lives to arrest. Instead, prosecutors have inserted their own ideological and political agenda into the justice system and deemed themselves judge and jury.
“The failure to prosecute such an alarming number of arrests has emboldened criminals as they now believe their illegal, violent actions will go unpunished. We have seen the devastating result of this soft-on-crime mentality as violence skyrockets in our nation’s major cities. My bill seeks to hold prosecutors accountable and helps ensure George Soros-backed ideologues are not releasing criminals back onto our streets without consequence. Commonsense says that when you increase the prosecution rate of dangerous criminals, there will be fewer offenders in our communities to commit acts of violence.”
In 2023 compared to 2022 in Washington, DC, homicides were up 35%, armed robberies were up 67%, motor vehicle thefts were up 82%, carjackings were up 103%, arson was up 175%, and violent crime as a whole was up 39%.
H.R. 6999 was referred to the Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
Sen. Casey welcomes report examining accessibility barriers at Veterans Affairs
After the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General (VA OIG) issued a report on VA’s compliance with the accessibility standards set by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D=Scranton, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, released the following statement:
“I called for this report because the VA and the entire federal government needs to wake up to this issue. We would not ask someone using a wheelchair to walk up the courthouse steps, but we are doing something similar when we ask people with disabilities to use federal websites that are not accessible. The report shows that the Biden Administration has begun making long overdue progress on accessible technology at VA, but there is clearly more work to be done. I hope this report finally spurs the action that people with disabilities, older adults, and veterans deserve.”
Citing bipartisan legislation and oversight that Casey led in recent years, the report found that VA consistently failed to make its websites fully accessible for people with disabilities as required by law.
Between 2019 and 2022, fewer than 11 percent of VA’s public-facing websites were fully accessible, and fewer than 9 percent of its internal websites were fully accessible, the report found.
Moreover, VA did not follow its own policies to ensure websites and technology were compliant with federal accessibility law, including a failure to track the accessibility of more than 200,000 internal websites. The report issued six recommendations, including that VA establish mechanisms to ensure web accessibility policies are enforced across the Department.