Tax collection company says it will not charge penalties due to Tax Day website issues

PITTSBURGH — Many communities across Pennsylvania use Keystone Collections for their local tax filing and payments. On Tuesday, thousands of people were trying to do that but met with error messages for hours.

Lenore Wossidlo of Swissvale said she tried to pay her local taxes on Keystone Collections for nearly the whole day Tuesday.

“It would just spin and spin and spin,” she said, describing the website.

She was met with error messages saying there was an “unrecoverable error.”

“From about 4 p.m. until about 11 or so, 11:30 p.m., I tried during every commercial. I was watching TV. I had nothing else open on my computer,” Wossidlo told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek. “My only goal was to file taxes.”

Steven Adkins of Franklin Park had a similar issue. It started Monday — a day before Tax Day — when the site wouldn’t accept his username and password.

He was able to log in on Tuesday, but that was it.

“I tried multiple browsers, I tried my phone, I tried everything I could, some of them, it just said the website didn’t exist,” Adkins told Havranek.

He struggled for five hours, his wife even told him to give up, but at 9:30 p.m., his taxes went through.

“Just for the simple enter a few numbers, it’s usually a 15-20 minute process,” Adkins said.

Similarly, Wossidlo tried just before going to bed after midnight and got through.

“Paid the taxes, printed my receipt, and was ecstatic,” she said. “It was a miracle.”

They both tell Channel 11 they were worried they’d be hit with late fees.

On Wednesday, a message on Keystone Collections’ website, and when you call, said that won’t be the case.

“Due to intermittent internet issues, certain online services had limited availability. Residents who were unable to file due to the disruption will not incur additional penalties,” an automated recording said.

Both Adkins and Wossidlo think Keystone needs to make sure this doesn’t happen again next year. But if it does, they want Keystone Collections to be more transparent.

“I think the big thing would be just to communicate,” Adkins said. “Just say, ‘hey we’re having issues, there won’t be a penalty, continue to work with us,’ and then suddenly everybody would have been a little bit relieved.”

Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek left a voicemail and sent a text to David Kratzenberg, the CEO of Keystone Collections, asking for an interview, but did not hear back.

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