If you recently bought a home in Pennsylvania and got hit with a late penalty on a property tax bill you never received, Act 57 of 2022 lets you apply for a waiver of those penalties. The Pennsylvania Act 57 property tax penalty waiver removes the additional charges a tax collector added to your bill, provided you acquired the property within the past 12 months, attest that the tax notice never reached you, and pay the full face amount of the tax along with your request. It does not extend your deadline, and it does not forgive the underlying tax.
Who Qualifies
The waiver is written for a specific situation: a new owner, a missing bill, and penalties that piled up before anyone knew there was a problem. To qualify, you have to meet all three of these conditions:
- You acquired the property within the 12 months before your waiver request. The transfer date is the one on your recorded deed, on the title for a mobile or manufactured home, or the start date on a lease.
- You did not receive the official tax notice from the tax collector. If the bill arrived and you forgot about it, Act 57 does not apply.
- You pay the face amount of the bill at the same time you submit the request.
That last piece surprises people. The waiver is not a payment plan and not an extension. You send the money with the paperwork; the collector then strips the penalty off.
What Comes Off the Bill and What Stays
Under the Local Tax Collection Law, a tax collector can add up to 10 percent of the base tax as a penalty once the bill is more than four months past the notice date. The statute defines “additional charge” broadly, sweeping in any interest, fee, penalty, or charge above the face amount shown on the notice. Act 57 waives those additional charges for qualifying new owners.
The early-payment discount is a different story. Many Pennsylvania taxing districts offer a discount, often around 2 percent, for paying within the first months of the billing cycle. Act 57 does not restore that discount. Even with an approved waiver, you pay face value, not the discounted rate you would have received had the bill arrived on time.
The Form and the Documents You Need
Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development publishes a standardized form, the Request for Waiver of Additional Charges: Real Estate Taxes, available on the DCED website. A letter or informal note will not work. The form is required.
You also have to attach proof that the property transferred to you within the past 12 months. Acceptable documents include a recorded deed showing the transfer date and your name, a title document for a mobile or manufactured home, or an executed lease showing when the lease began. A closing disclosure or settlement statement can back up the transaction date, though the deed is the primary document most tax collectors expect. Without acceptable proof attached, the collector cannot legally grant the waiver, so pull those documents together before you fill anything out.
Where to Send It
The completed form, your proof of transfer, and your payment go directly to the local tax collector for the property. The collector’s contact information is printed on the tax bill. If no bill ever reached you, your municipality’s website or the county tax office can point you to the right person.
Use certified mail or hand-deliver the package and get a dated receipt. The 12-month clock runs from the date the property transferred to you, not from when the bill was issued. If your deed was recorded on March 15, 2025, your waiver request has to reach the collector before March 15, 2026.
Once the waiver is approved, the collector removes the penalty and any other additional charges from your account. Keep a copy of the approved waiver and your payment confirmation, and check the next billing cycle to confirm your balance is clear.
Because Act 57 amends the Local Tax Collection Law, which covers taxes levied by counties, municipalities, and school districts, more than one collector may be involved. If you pay separate bills to your county, your township, and your school district, and each added a penalty, you may need to submit a separate waiver request to each office.
When Your Mortgage Servicer Was Supposed to Pay
If you have an escrow account, your mortgage servicer collects a share of the estimated annual taxes with each mortgage payment and pays the bill on your behalf. Federal regulations under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act require servicers to make timely disbursements from escrow for property taxes.
When the penalty is there because the servicer missed the payment rather than because a bill went astray, contact the servicer first. A servicer is generally responsible for penalties caused by its own late payment out of escrow. If the servicer refuses to cover the charge, you may still qualify for an Act 57 waiver as a new owner who did not receive the bill, but document every call and message with the servicer in case the dispute grows.
If the Collector Denies Your Request
Act 57 does not lay out a formal appeals process. The first step after a denial is to ask why. Common reasons are missing documentation, a transfer date outside the 12-month window, or failure to include the payment with the request. If the problem is a paperwork gap and you are still inside the 12-month eligibility period, you can fix it and resubmit.
If you believe the denial is wrong and the collector will not reconsider, Pennsylvania property owners can seek relief through the local court of common pleas. Act 57 makes the waiver mandatory for qualifying taxpayers, so a collector who refuses a valid request is not following the law. If penalties and interest are compounding while you argue, a local attorney who handles property tax disputes is worth the call.
Pay the Base Tax Even While You Wait
The waiver takes the penalty off. It does not touch the tax itself. Under Pennsylvania’s Real Estate Tax Sale Law, unpaid taxes become delinquent on December 31 of the year they were due. The collector then returns delinquent accounts to the county tax claim bureau between January and mid-April, and interest starts running at 9 percent per year.
The bureau files a claim and sends a certified-mail notice. If the claim stays unpaid, it becomes absolute the following January 1, and the property can be scheduled for an upset tax sale, typically between the second Monday of September and October 1. Owner-occupied properties get extra notice protections, including personal service and posting at least 10 days before the sale, but those safeguards slow the process rather than stop it. A few hundred dollars in unpaid taxes can put a home at risk within roughly two years, so even with a penalty waiver in hand, pay the face amount promptly.