Schuylkill County Register of Wills Theresa Santai Gaffney wants more state inheritance tax money collected locally to stay in the area, and she is pushing legislation that would make that happen.
"We keep 0.5 percent in the county," Santai Gaffney said of the majority of the inheritance tax revenues her office collects.
Santai Gaffney believes that counties, including Schuylkill, should be able to keep 1 percent, and has gotten state Sen. David Argall, R-29, to co-sponsor legislation that would change the state inheritance tax law to do that.
The proposed legislation, Senate Bill 1547, has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee, where it currently is under consideration.
The proposal would represent another change in a tax that has been lowered in recent years and does not cause as much controversy as the federal estate and gift tax.
"Pennsylvania's state inheritance tax is not unique among the states," said state Rep. Mike Tobash, R-125. "We don't get a lot of complaints about it."
The tax applies to all property owned by a deceased person, but is paid by the recipients of the property. Payments must be made within nine months of the death of the person from whose estate the property is obtained.
"We collect the revenue," Santai Gaffney said.
Spouses, charities and parents inheriting from children under 21 are exempt from payment or inheritance taxes, but anyone else receiving property must pay the tax, although Santai Gaffney said different heirs are taxed at different rates.
"It depends on the relationship," she said.
She said the tax rate for lineal heirs - children, parents, grandparents - is 4.5 percent, while the rate for siblings is 12 percent and the rate for all other beneficiaries is 15 percent.
"It does exist from the first dollar," Tobash said of the tax. In contrast, while the federal estate and gift tax rate is much higher, 35 percent, it is not imposed on the first $5 million of assets of a decedent's estate.
"Most of the complaints I hear are at the federal level," Tobash said.
Santai Gaffney also said that the tax is not really controversial.
"At this point, I think they expect (to pay) it," she said.
One reason for the lack of controversy might be the elimination, as of June 30, of the application of the tax to family farms. Tobash and Santai Gaffney each said that change will help farm families a lot.
"If this had existed in the past, I think a lot of farms would still exist," she said.
Another possible reason is that the spousal, lineal and sibling rates have been reduced, according to Santai Gaffney.
The spousal rate went to zero from 3 percent in 1994, the lineal rate went to 4.5 from 6 percent in 2000 and the sibling rate went to 12 from 15 percent in 2000, she said.
Santai Gaffney's office collected $7,387,625.83 in inheritance taxes in 2009, $6,744,104.43 in 2010 and $8,057,639.92 in 2011.
The county gets to keep 4.25 percent of the amount collected up to $200,000, 1.75 percent of the next $800,000 collected and 0.5 percent of the rest. It is the last amount that Santai Gaffney wants to increase to 1 percent.
"It's not going to make a great big difference, but it will help every county," she said. "I'm very proud of that."Amounts of Pennsylvania inheritance tax collected annually by the Schuylkill County Register of Wills office:
2009: $7,387,625.83
2010: $6,744,104.43
2011: $8,057,639.92