{"id":126034,"date":"2023-12-13T20:56:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T01:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=126034"},"modified":"2023-12-13T20:56:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T01:56:41","slug":"treasurer-stacy-garrity-commends-house-education-committees-approval-of-tax-credit-for-employers-offering-pa-529-account-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=126034","title":{"rendered":"Treasurer Stacy Garrity Commends House Education Committee\u2019s Approval of Tax Credit for Employers Offering PA 529 Account Contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

HB 1745 will create a tax credit for contributions to employees\u2019 PA 529 accounts\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harrisburg, PA\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 Treasurer Stacy Garrity today commended the House Education Committee for unanimously approving\u00a0House Bill 1745<\/a>, sponsored by\u00a0Rep. Paul Friel\u00a0(D-26). The legislation will create a tax credit for employers who provide contributions to\u00a0PA 529 College and Career Savings Program<\/a>\u00a0accounts owned by their employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating this tax credit will encourage employers to help Pennsylvanians save for their child\u2019s or grandchild\u2019s future education with our tremendous PA 529 program,\u201d Treasurer Garrity said. \u201cHB 1745 will benefit families across Pennsylvania, and it will allow employers to offer a new benefit, making them more attractive places to work. I commend Rep. Friel for introducing this bill, and the House Education Committee for moving it forward. I look forward to working with the General Assembly to get this great idea enacted into law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that the PA 529 Tax Credit bill passed out of committee with broad bipartisan support,\u201d Rep. Friel said. \u201cThis is an example of where we can come together and help provide greater educational opportunities to our students and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treasurer Garrity thanked House Education Committee Chair\u00a0Rep. Peter Schweyer\u00a0(D-134) and House Education Committee Republican Chair\u00a0Rep. Jesse Topper\u00a0(R-78) for their support of the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill is another tool for parents and families to be able access a more affordable higher education,\u201d said Rep. Topper.<\/p>\n

Incorporating a tax credit for Pennsylvania employers who provide contributions to PA 529 accounts was recommended by the Tuition Account Program Advisory Board, which oversees the PA 529 program, in its\u00a0annual report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HB 1745 would establish a 25 percent tax credit on employer contributions of up to $500 per participating employee per year. It would apply to contributions made to any 529 account. Seven other states \u2013 Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada and Wisconsin \u2013 currently provide a similar tax credit.<\/p>\n

Treasury\u00a0works closely with employers<\/a>\u00a0across the state to facilitate automatic payroll deductions for contributions to PA 529 accounts, and HB 1745 will take that to the next level. Making it even easier for families to save for education will lessen the burden of the cost of higher education and training for the next generation of Pennsylvania\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n

PA 529 accounts can be used for a wide variety of expenses \u2013 including tuition, fees, books, equipment, room and board, and more \u2013 at four-year universities, community colleges, technical schools and qualified apprenticeships. They also offer significant state and federal tax advantages, and assets in a PA 529 account don\u2019t affect eligibility for Pennsylvania state financial aid.<\/p>\n

The PA 529 program has been helping families save and pay for education for more than 30 years. There are currently over 290,000 PA 529 accounts with assets of more than $6.9 billion.<\/p>\n

There are two PA 529 plans to choose from, the\u00a0PA 529 Guaranteed Savings Plan<\/a>\u00a0which allows families to save at today\u2019s tuition rates to meet tomorrow\u2019s tuition costs, or the\u00a0PA 529 Investment Plan<\/a>\u00a0which provides numerous investment options with earnings based on financial market performance. The PA 529 IP was recently awarded\u00a0Morningstar\u2019s Gold Rating<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 making it one of the top two plans in the country.<\/p>\n

For new parents and growing families,\u00a0Keystone Scholars<\/a>\u00a0provides an automatic jumpstart for education savings. Keystone Scholars provides a $100 for every baby born to or adopted by a Pennsylvania family in 2019 and beyond \u2013 using no taxpayer dollars. So far, Keystone Scholars families have saved more than $76 million in companion PA 529 accounts since the program\u2019s inception in 2019.<\/p>\n

Learn more about saving with PA 529 accounts at\u00a0pa529.com<\/a>, or contact Treasury at\u00a0pa529@patreasury.gov<\/a>\u00a0or 800-440-4000.<\/p>\n

STACY GARRITY, STATE TREASURER<\/p>\n

www.patreasury.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSamantha Heckel<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 HB 1745 will create a tax credit for contributions to employees\u2019 PA 529 accounts\u00a0 Harrisburg, PA\u00a0\u2014 Treasurer Stacy Garrity today commended the House Education Committee for unanimously approving\u00a0House Bill … Continue reading Treasurer Stacy Garrity Commends House Education Committee\u2019s Approval of Tax Credit for Employers Offering PA 529 Account Contributions<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Pennsylvania-Treasury.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}