School District Looks to Identify Outstanding Tax Debts

The Southern Lehigh School Board will meet tonight to decide whether or not to approve an item that would give the administration access to the state income tax records of district residents. Listed as "item H" of the School Board’s agenda, the item would give Southern Lehigh administrators access to tax information to identify those who do not pay or who underpay their local earned income taxes. If the item passes, records would be turned over to Berkheimer & Associates, a private tax auditor and collector.

The item reads in full:

“Administration requests permission to complete and sign the attached forms in connection with the acquisition of state income tax information for individuals who identified Southern Lehigh SD as their district of residence on state income tax returns filed for tax years 2007, 2008, and 2009.   This information will be used by our EIT collector, Berkheimer & Associates, to identify non-filers and those individuals who may have omitted potentially taxable income from their local earned income tax returns.”

The item is intended to help Berkheimer, said James Snell, the district's Director of Business & Personnel Services. "I think that school districts are one of the few groups that can buy [income tax records]," said Snell. "Generally on April 15, people think federal and state taxes. They don't always include local or tell their tax preparer that they will take care of their own local taxes at a later date."

Snell said residents worried about the school district accessing private information such as Social Security numbers forget the district already has access to that information. "When taxes are filed, we get that information. We simply want Berkheimer not collecting a dollar that isn’t owed. But we don’t want them overlooking a dollar that is owed either."

The school board meets at 7:30 tonight at .