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Money & Insurance

Berks County Earned Income Tax: Who Collects It, How to File

Who collects the Berks County earned income tax, why Reading residents pay 3.6% and most others 1%, and how to file the annual local return by April 15.

Berks Connect Blog|Published October 21, 2026
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If you live in Berks County and earn a paycheck, the Berks County earned income tax is a local tax your municipality and school district put on your wages, and for almost every address in the county the office that collects it is the Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau in Wyomissing. Most residents pay 1% and City of Reading residents pay 3.6%. Everyone files a short local return by April 15 each year, even when the employer already withheld every dollar. If you'd rather hand it off, the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County can take it on with the federal and state returns.

Who collects the Berks County earned income tax?

For nearly every Berks address, the Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau does. The earned income tax, which you'll see shortened to EIT, is the local tax on wages and on net profits, meaning what a self-employed person clears after expenses. Your municipality and school district levy it together, and a state law passed in 2008 put one collector in charge for nearly the whole county.

That collector is the Bureau at 1125 Berkshire Blvd, Suite 115, Wyomissing, PA 19610, phone 610-372-8439, lobby open weekdays 8 to 4:30. Berks EIT Bureau, Berks EIT and BEITB are all the same office. Since January 1, 2015 it has been owned and run by the Berks County Tax Collection Committee, which is made up of the county's school districts and municipalities themselves, and the Bureau is still the office you deal with.

Residents of the Twin Valley School District (Caernarvon Township, New Morgan Borough and Robeson Township) file with Keystone Collections Group, and Hereford Township residents, in the Upper Perkiomen School District, file with Berkheimer Tax Administrator. The county's offices and its property tax are laid out in our Berks County government guide.

Why is my rate different from my coworker's?

Because the rate follows where you live, not where you work. As of 2026, City of Reading residents pay 3.6%, and everyone else the Bureau collects for in Berks pays 1%.

Where you live Resident rate Who collects it
City of Reading 3.6% Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau
Every other Berks municipality the Bureau serves 1% Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau
New Hanover Township, Montgomery County (Boyertown Area schools) 1.15% Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau
Upper Frederick Township, Montgomery County (Boyertown Area schools) 1.04% Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau
Caernarvon Township, New Morgan Borough and Robeson Township 1% Keystone Collections Group
Hereford Township 1% Berkheimer Tax Administrator

Rates for the places the Bureau serves, and for the four municipalities with another collector.

The table says what the opening said: almost everyone pays 1% to the Bureau, Reading residents pay 3.6%, and the Twin Valley School District's three municipalities and Hereford Township file with another collector.

Your employer withholds the higher of two numbers: the resident rate where you live, or the rate the town where you work charges people who only work there. For people who work in Reading but live elsewhere, Reading's non-resident rate has been 1% since July 1, 2022. The common exception is a Reading resident, who has 3.6% withheld wherever in the county they work.

Your employer knows your rates from a Residency Certification Form, the short form new hires fill out with their hiring paperwork and fill out again after a move. It carries your PSD code, the state's six-digit code for your municipality, and the online address lookup on the state Department of Community and Economic Development's website finds the code and both rates for any address. The employer's side of all this lives in our guide to hiring a first employee in Berks.

Do I have to file if my employer already withheld it?

Yes. Every resident with earnings files a local return each year, even when the employer withheld every dollar and nothing more is due. The rule covers "every individual regardless of age who has earnings," with "no minimum wage limits or age limits," so a teenager with a summer job files too. So does a college student working away at school whose legal home is still a parent's house in Berks. The Bureau asks even someone with no earned income to send in a return, with the reason marked in the box on the form; Student, Unemployed, Homemaker and Retired are among the printed choices. Spouses can file two separate returns, or one return in two columns if they share an address and a rate.

One more thing catches people every spring: the online tax software many people use for the federal and state returns doesn't create or submit the local return.

When is the local return due, and how do I file it?

The return is due "On or before April 15" for the previous calendar year, or the next business day when April 15 lands on a weekend or holiday. You can file online, which is free, or on paper.

The Bureau's home page now points filers to its newer eServices site at ind.beitb.org, where you create an account with an email address, a password and a two-factor code, then file the return or an extension. The older eFiling site at efile.berkseit.org is still open; it signs you in with your Social Security number and a code it shows you. On either site a balance can be paid from a bank account with no fee, or by credit card through a vendor that charges a fee.

Print the Individual EIT Return from berkseit.com, sign it, and mail it to the box that matches your result:

  • Payment enclosed: PO Box 6365, Wyomissing, PA 19610-0365. Make the check payable to BEITB or Berks EIT Bureau, write your Social Security number on it, and never send cash.
  • Refund or credit requested: PO Box 6366, Wyomissing, PA 19610-0366.
  • No payment and no refund: PO Box 6367, Wyomissing, PA 19610-0367.

You can also hand one in at the lobby or put it in the drop box by the front door; fax and email aren't accepted.

What goes with the return, and what isn't taxed?

On paper, your W-2s go with the return, and photocopies are fine; online, you enter or upload the W-2 information and keep the forms. The return reports your wages (in most cases box 16 of each W-2), and the local tax withheld, as shown on each W-2. The Local Services Tax, a separate flat tax, isn't part of this return.

A few situations call for extra pages:

  • Unreimbursed employee business expenses: enclose PA Schedule UE and page one of your PA-40.
  • Self-employment, farm or partnership income: enclose the PA schedules that report it (C, F, RK-1).
  • A credit for tax paid to another state or to Philadelphia: for another state, that state's return, PA Schedule G-L and the W-2; for Philadelphia, the W-2 showing the wage tax.

The tax lands on wages, tips and other pay for work, and on net profits from a business, farm, profession or partnership. A long list of income isn't taxed locally at all: Social Security, pensions, interest, dividends, capital gains and unemployment compensation among them. The printed instructions carry the full list.

Will I get a local tax refund or owe a balance?

The return ends one of three ways: a refund, even, or a balance due. It multiplies your taxable earnings by your resident rate, then subtracts the local tax your W-2s show withheld and any estimated payments you made, so if the withholding matched your rate you land at or near zero. Refunds of $1 or less aren't issued, and a balance of $1 or less doesn't have to be paid. Any refund comes with a Form 1099-G, a slip reporting it.

The clearest balance-due case is a Reading resident whose employer withheld 1% when it should have withheld 3.6%. The law says an employer's shortfall "shall not relieve any employee from the payment of the income tax," so the difference is paid with the return. Paying late adds interest at the rate Pennsylvania sets each year, plus a penalty of 1% a month, up to 15%. To get an extension, send a copy of your federal Form 4868 with the Bureau's extension payment voucher by the due date; it extends the time to file, not the time to pay.

A few more questions people ask.

What if I moved during the year?

You report only the earnings and withholding from the months you lived in the Bureau's territory, on the proration worksheet on the back of the return, one column per address with its own dates and PSD code. A month counts for the place you lived more than half of it. If you moved in from another county, that county's collector gets a return for its part of the year and the Bureau gets one for its part.

I got a Failure to File Notice. What now?

Answer it by the date on the notice. The Bureau receives state tax data about 15 months after each due date. A resident whose state return named a Berks school district, but who filed no local return, gets this letter; a late return carries a $25 fee "even if you do not owe any tax." If you no longer have the W-2s, ask the employer for copies, since IRS wage transcripts won't show local tax withheld. A return sent to the wrong collector still has to be filed with the Bureau. A payment plan is available.

I'm self-employed and nothing was withheld. What do I do?

You file the same return, reporting net profits from your PA schedules, and the year's tax comes due with it. People with no withholding usually pay quarterly estimates, and the fourth payment is due January 15; the January date sits in our year-end tax checklist.

Confirm your collector, which for nearly all of Berks is the Bureau in Wyomissing, gather your W-2s, and file by April 15 whether or not anything is due. This is general information about how the local tax works, not advice about your return; a question about your own situation goes to a CPA, an enrolled agent (a preparer licensed by the IRS), or, if you qualify, a free volunteer tax site under the IRS's VITA program or AARP Tax-Aide. If you'd rather not do it yourself, accountants and tax preparers in Berks County will fold the local return in with the rest. Either way, get it in before the fifteenth so the notice never comes.

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