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Pennsylvania Income Tax and myPATH for Berks Residents

How to file the Pennsylvania state return and check a state refund on myPATH without an account, the 3.07 percent flat tax, the April 15 rule, free filing, and the Revenue office in Reading.

Berks Connect Blog|Published October 23, 2026
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You file your Pennsylvania state return and check your state refund at myPATH, the Department of Revenue's own website for filing, paying and checking a state refund, and you don't need an account for either job. Checking a refund takes your Social Security number and the exact refund amount you asked for. If you'd rather hand it to a person, the department's district office is on Cherry Street in Reading, and the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County can prepare the state return for you.

What is myPATH, and do you need an account to use it?

myPATH is short for "my Pennsylvania Tax Hub," at mypath.pa.gov. It's where you prepare and submit the Pennsylvania personal income tax return, the state form called the PA-40, for free, and where you make a payment, check a refund and answer a letter from the department.

So do you need to sign up? For the everyday jobs, no. Filing, paying, checking a refund and responding to a department request for information all work from the home page without a username or password.

To file without an account you need your Social Security number, plus one of two things: the total tax from a Pennsylvania return you filed before, or your date of birth together with your Pennsylvania driver's license or photo ID number. One warning: the site signs you out after 15 minutes without activity and unsaved work is lost, so have your income forms (a W-2, or a 1099-R if you're retired) and your ID in front of you before you start.

How do you check your PA state refund, and why would it be held?

Use the "Where's My Income Tax Refund?" link on myPATH, or call the automated refund line, 1-888-PATAXES (728-2937); either way you'll give your Social Security number and the exact refund amount you requested. How long does it take? There's no set number of weeks. What the department does say is that an e-filed return's refund is processed in half the time of a paper return, and that direct deposit isn't available on a paper return. A federal refund or an IRS letter is a different agency and a different site, and our post on IRS letters and the Reading IRS office covers that side.

Some refunds are held for an identity check. The department mails a letter to the address on your return and holds the refund until you confirm who you are. The letter comes in two kinds: a six-question multiple-choice quiz, for which you'll need the letter, your last filed PA-40 and the amount on Line 29 of this year's PA-40, the overpayment line; or a code from the letter that you enter with that same Line 29 amount. Both are answered on myPATH without an account, and both expire 65 days from the letter. If you don't respond, or you fail the quiz, you'll be asked for identifying documents before the refund is released.

When is the PA-40 due, and what does an extension give you?

You have to file a PA-40 if you received more than $33 in total Pennsylvania gross taxable income (income of the kinds the state taxes) during the year, even if no tax is due, or if you had a loss from any transaction, whether as an individual, a sole proprietor, a partner or a PA S corporation shareholder. The return is due before midnight on April 15, or the next business day when April 15 falls on a weekend or an IRS-recognized holiday. By that rule, the 2026 returns are due April 15, 2027.

What if you can't finish by then? An extension gives you up to six months more to file and no extra time to pay. If you expect to owe, pay that amount by the due date on myPATH by bank withdrawal or card, and the payment counts as your extension request with no form to mail; or mail a check with Form REV-276 to the PA Department of Revenue, Bureau of Individual Taxes, PO Box 280504, Harrisburg, PA 17128-0504. Paying online as your extension isn't open to anyone who has never filed a Pennsylvania return or made an estimated payment before; a first-time filer mails the form.

With an approved federal extension and no Pennsylvania tax owed, the department grants the same extension on its own. If you owe nothing and have no federal extension, mail the REV-276, because an extension with no payment can't be filed electronically. Paying less than 90 percent of the tax by the due date brings an underpayment penalty, and interest runs on the rest.

What is the Pennsylvania income tax rate, and what does it apply to?

Pennsylvania's income tax is a flat 3.07 percent, the same rate since 2004. It applies to eight classes of income, meaning the state taxes each kind on its own: wages; interest; dividends; net profits from a business, profession or farm; gains from selling property; rents and royalties; income through estates or trusts; and gambling and lottery winnings, including cash prizes from the Pennsylvania Lottery. There's no standard deduction and no personal exemption, and a loss in one class can't offset income in another.

Some income the IRS taxes, Pennsylvania doesn't. Under the department's rules, Social Security payments and railroad retirement benefits aren't taxed. Neither are pension or retirement benefits from an employer plan the state counts as eligible, paid after you retire on reaching the age or the years of service the plan sets; the department says to ask your employer or plan administrator whether the plan is an eligible one. An IRA distribution isn't taxed when it's received on or after age 59½, or when it's paid to an estate or beneficiary at death. The reverse is also true: what you put into your employer's retirement plan is Pennsylvania-taxable compensation that year, and the state allows no deduction for IRA contributions.

Can you file your PA return for free?

Yes. The first way is myPATH itself. The second is one of two software companies the department links from its own site. One is free for everybody, federal return included. The other is free when your federal adjusted gross income (the income figure on your federal return) is $51,000 or less, or $89,000 or less for active-duty military, as of 2026.

The department also ran a Fast File pilot in early 2026, mailing invitations to about 100,000 people with the simplest returns (single, full-time resident, one W-2, no deductions, credits or estimated payments) to file from W-2 data already loaded in myPATH; that invitation isn't the identity letter above.

Where is the Revenue office near Reading, and what can it help with?

The department's district office in Berks is at 625 Cherry Street in Reading. The department strongly recommends an appointment, so call ahead, and bring your Social Security card and a photo ID. The office has paper forms and helps with filing the state return, and it also helps with the Property Tax/Rent Rebate application, which the Berks Beat's rent rebate guide walks through. For a question by phone, the department's personal income tax line is 717-787-8201 during weekday business hours.

Here's where each job goes, and what to have ready:

What you want to do Where What you need
File the PA-40 for free myPATH (mypath.pa.gov), no account needed Your Social Security number, plus either a prior year's tax liability or your date of birth and PA driver's license or photo ID
Check a state refund myPATH's Where's My Income Tax Refund? link, or 1-888-PATAXES (728-2937), 24 hours Your Social Security number and the exact refund amount you requested
Pay a balance, an extension or an estimate myPATH, no account needed Bank account and routing number (no charge), or a credit or debit card (the processor's fee)
Answer an identity verification letter myPATH, no account needed The letter, your last filed PA-40, the Line 29 amount from this year's return and the last four digits of your Social Security number
Get help in person Revenue district office, Suite 239, 625 Cherry St, Reading, PA 19602; 610-378-4401; 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays Call ahead for an appointment; bring your Social Security card and a photo ID

The Reading office is the only Revenue district office in Berks County.

Every job but the in-person one happens on myPATH without an account, and nothing on the list requires a trip to Reading unless you want one.

Questions Berks filers ask about myPATH and the state return.

Does myPATH file my local earned income tax return?

No. myPATH files the PA-40 only. The federal return and the local return need other options, and online tax filing software, which files the federal and state returns, doesn't submit the local return either. The school district code you enter on the PA-40 is shared with the local collector. The Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau compares it against the Bureau's own records about 15 months after each due date, and that comparison is where its Failure to File notices, the letters it sends residents who filed a state return but no local one, come from. The local return itself is covered in our post on the Berks County earned income tax.

Where do I mail a paper PA-40?

To one of three Harrisburg addresses: PA Dept of Revenue, Payment Enclosed, 1 Revenue Place, Harrisburg, PA 17129-0001 if you owe; Refund or Credit Requested, 3 Revenue Place, 17129-0003 if you overpaid; and No Payment or No Refund, 2 Revenue Place, 17129-0002 if neither. Attach copies of every W-2 and every 1099-R, whether or not the distribution is taxable, and any 1099-MISC or 1099-NEC that reports compensation or shows Pennsylvania tax withheld, and never mail a paper copy of a return you filed electronically.

If you've got your income forms and your ID in hand, open myPATH tonight and file; if you filed weeks ago, pull up your copy and check the refund. This is general information about how the state return and myPATH work, 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 a free VITA or AARP Tax-Aide site, the volunteer programs that prepare returns for people who qualify. The details are in our free tax help post. When you'd rather not do it alone, the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County listed here are the next door to knock on.

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