ABOUT US

The Property Taxpayers Association of Pennsylvania (PTAP) advances uniform, effective, clear, and fair property taxation to safeguard taxpayers and taxing authorities.

John Locke (1623 – 1704) advocated that the foundation of government is predicated on the people freely transferring certain necessary powers to government in exchange for the government protect ing the rights of the people. The people have given the right to tax to the government, however, in exchange the government must tax only within the rules. Those overriding rules are our Constitution.

The Pennsylvania Constitution requires uniform taxation; therefore, all aspects of taxing districts’ rules and regulations must be subservient to uniform taxation. PTAP serves to protect taxpayers and the state and taxing districts from establishing procedures that are not grounded in the mandate of uniformity whereby allowing for equal protection and uniform taxation required by the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions.

The people, having given the government the right to tax, expect that the government will conduct the business of taxation in an effective manner. Effective taxation occurs when the rules are followed, and the needs of the people have been met. The tax system is effective if the costs to administer the system are low.

Having rules in the constitution is not sufficient. There must be a means to enforce the mandates of the constitution. To ensure that the government is not taxing in a non-uniform manner , the tax and how the tax is administered must be clear. The taxing authorities must use the most accurate information as practical, and the process must be transparent.

A tax is fair if there are ways to ensure that individuals are not treated unfairly.

•  A fair property tax requires that all taxpayers be taxed on the same interest.

•  A fair property tax requires that the process used to establish assessments are uniformly applied.

•  A fair property tax requires that taxpayers have oversight protections to force uniformity readily at taxpayers' disposal.

•  A fair property tax is not overly burdensome.

PTAP’s mission is to educate legislators, governmental bodies and industry groups who create and maintain property tax assessment laws and procedures that ensure uniform, effective, clear, and fair property taxation.