Pennsylvania Gross Receipts Tax: Rates, Filing, and Credits

The Pennsylvania gross receipts tax is a state excise tax on the total in-state revenue of specific industries — utilities, telecommunications carriers, certain transportation companies, and private bankers — charged at rates from 1% up to 59 mills (5.9%) depending on the industry. It applies to gross intake, not profit, so a company owes the tax on qualifying Pennsylvania receipts whether or not it turned a profit that year.

Who Pays and at What Rate

Rates are quoted in mills. One mill equals one-tenth of a cent per dollar of receipts, so 50 mills works out to 5% and 59 mills to 5.9%.

Electric, water power, and hydro-electric companies pay 59 mills on receipts from energy sales inside Pennsylvania. That figure combines a 44-mill statutory base with a 15-mill revenue-neutral reconciliation surcharge tied to the state’s electricity deregulation framework.¹
Telephone, telegraph, and mobile telecommunications providers pay 50 mills on receipts from messages and services sourced to Pennsylvania. That includes interstate and international landline calls that originate or terminate in the state and are billed to a Pennsylvania service address.²
Pipeline, conduit, steamboat, canal, and other transportation companies pay 50 mills on receipts from passengers, baggage, freight, and intrastate oil shipments in Pennsylvania. Motor vehicle carriers and railroads are excluded.²
Private bankers pay 1% on gross receipts from commissions, loan discounts, account fees, safe deposit box rentals, bond and mortgage interest, securities profits, and similar banking income.²

Every rate applies only to the portion of business conducted within Pennsylvania. Revenue earned entirely outside the state is not part of the taxable base, consistent with constitutional limits on taxing interstate commerce.

What Counts as Pennsylvania Revenue

Sourcing is straightforward for fixed infrastructure and awkward for mobile phones. For cell service, Pennsylvania follows the federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act: all charges for mobile service are taxable only in the jurisdiction where the customer’s “place of primary use” is located, meaning the street address where the customer primarily uses the service.³ That address has to fall within the provider’s licensed service area.⁴

In practice, the provider looks at the billing address on the account. If it’s in Pennsylvania, receipts from that customer are taxable here even when every call was made out of state. Calls made in Pennsylvania on a plan billed to a New Jersey address generate no Pennsylvania gross receipts tax.

Receipts You Can Exclude

The statute carves out categories that would otherwise be taxed twice. Electric companies can exclude receipts from selling energy for resale to another provider that is itself subject to the gross receipts tax; without this exclusion, the same kilowatt-hour would be taxed at every step on the way to the end user.⁵

Telecommunications and mobile providers get parallel exclusions. Revenue from providing internet access is not taxable, and neither are wholesale sales to another telecom company that pays the gross receipts tax on the eventual retail transaction.⁵ Separate excluded revenue at the point of sale rather than at year-end. A clean audit trail here matters if the Department of Revenue comes asking.

Forms and Deadlines by Industry

There is no single universal gross receipts tax form. Each industry files a different report.

Electric, hydro-electric, and water power companies file Form RCT-112, due March 15 for the preceding calendar year.¹
Telecommunications providers file Form RCT-111, due March 15 for the preceding calendar year.²
Transportation companies file Form RCT-113a, due March 15 for the preceding calendar year.²
Private bankers file Form RCT-131, due February 15 for the preceding calendar year.²

When the due date falls on a weekend or holiday, it shifts to the next business day. To extend, file Form REV-426 or request the extension electronically through myPATH for another 60 days. The automatic federal extension Pennsylvania grants for some other taxes does not apply here, so request it separately.¹

The Estimated Prepayment Trap

Every gross receipts taxpayer owes an estimated prepayment during the current tax year, on top of the return that settles the prior year. The full estimated prepayment is due in a single installment on or before March 15 of the taxable year.⁶ So in any given March, two payments come due: the balance for the prior year and the prepayment for the current year.

Skipping the prepayment triggers underpayment interest and could put your operating authority in the state at risk.¹ If the estimate turns out to be too high or too low, file a revised estimate and adjust remaining payments.

Registering and Filing Through myPATH

You need an active tax account with the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue before filing anything. New businesses register through the Pennsylvania Online Business Tax Registration system on the myPATH portal. If you already file other Pennsylvania taxes, log in to your existing myPATH account and use “Register New Business Tax Accounts” to add the gross receipts tax.⁷

Filing happens electronically at mypath.pa.gov. Enter total receipts and exclusions, and the system calculates the tax using the applicable millage rate. Review the summary screen, apply an electronic signature certifying the return under penalty of law, and keep the confirmation number the portal generates. Payments of $1,000 or more must be made electronically or by certified check.¹

Late Penalties and Interest

Missing the filing deadline triggers a penalty of 5% of the unpaid tax for the first month, plus another 5% for each additional month the return remains unfiled, capped at 25%. After the cap, the penalty continues to grow at 1% per month. The minimum penalty is $5, even if very little tax is owed.⁸

Unpaid tax also accrues interest. For 2026, Pennsylvania’s interest rate on late or unpaid corporation taxes, which includes the gross receipts tax, is 7% annually, calculated daily at 0.000192 per day.⁹ A separate 3% penalty, up to $500, applies if you make a payment of $1,000 or more by any method other than electronic transfer or certified check.¹

Manufacturing Tax Credit

Pennsylvania’s Manufacturing Tax Credit program lets qualifying taxpayers offset a portion of the gross receipts tax. A company qualifies by increasing its annual taxable payroll by at least $1 million through the creation of new full-time jobs. The credit equals 5% of the payroll increase above a predetermined base-year amount.¹⁰

The program has a statewide cap of $4 million in credits per fiscal year and runs first-come, first-served. A company applying the credit against its gross receipts tax must also be subject to at least one other listed Pennsylvania business tax, such as the corporate net income tax or the insurance premiums tax. With the annual cap in play, apply early in the fiscal year rather than waiting for filing season.

Appealing an Assessment

If the Department of Revenue issues a notice of assessment claiming underpayment, you have 60 days from the mailing date of that notice to file an appeal with the Board of Appeals.¹¹ That window is strict for corporation taxes. Act 123 of 2024 extended the appeal period to 90 days for personal income tax, employer withholding, and pass-through assessments, but that change does not reach corporation-level taxes like the gross receipts tax.¹²

If the Board of Appeals rules against you, the next step is a petition to the Board of Finance and Revenue through its online tax appeal portal. File through the BF&R Tax Appeal Portal and send copies of the petition and supporting documents to the Department of Revenue at the same time. Missing either deadline forfeits the right to challenge the assessment.

Buying a Business That Owes the Tax

Anyone acquiring more than 51% of a Pennsylvania business’s assets, whether real estate, equipment, or an entire operation, can inherit the seller’s unpaid tax liabilities, including unpaid gross receipts tax. Pennsylvania’s bulk sale law is designed to prevent buyers from walking into that trap, but only if they follow the process.¹³

Before closing, the buyer should submit Form REV-181 (Application for Tax Clearance Certificate) to the Department of Revenue. The certificate confirms either that the seller has no outstanding Pennsylvania tax debts or specifies the exact amount owed. Without it, the buyer becomes personally liable for whatever the seller owed. It’s a single form filed before closing, and it’s the difference between a clean acquisition and one that comes with someone else’s tax bill.

1
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. RCT-112 Gross Receipts Tax Report – Electric, Hydro-Electric and Water Power Companies
2
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Gross Receipts Tax
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 4 USC 117 – Sourcing Rules
4
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Are Mobile Telecommunications Providers Subject to the Gross Receipts Tax?
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Statutes Title 72 P.S. 8101 – Imposition of Tax
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Statutes Title 72 P.S. 10003.2 – Estimated Tax
7
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Register My Business for Taxes
8
Pennsylvania Code. 61 Pennsylvania Code 121.26 – Penalties for Failure to File or for Filing a Late Return
9
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. 2026 Interest Rate and Calculation Method for Title 72 Taxes
10
PA Department of Community and Economic Development. Manufacturing Tax Credit (MTC) Program
11
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Timeframe to File an Appeal Due to an Assessment Notice
12
Pennsylvania Treasury. Board of Finance and Revenue
13
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Bulk Sales Notice