Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Tuesday that he found errors on more than 1,250 corporate tax returns, totaling a net gain of $35.4 million for the state.
Some corporations overpaid by a total of $5.5 million, but many more underpaid by a total of $40.8 million.
DePasquale said the Department of Revenue must now "aggressively go after that money" to reclaim as much as possible before the state budget deadline of June 30.
"We shouldn't be looking to raise one dime of taxes or cut one program that's important to the people of this state until every single dime of what's legally owed to the state is collected," DePasquale said.
While some errors were caught by the Department of Revenue before the returns were submitted for a final audit, DePasquale said there were other mistakes that went unnoticed by the agency on an additional six to seven percent of the corporate tax filings.
He said he thinks the $35.4 million in net gain for the state should go toward the Revenue Department's computer system so the agency can do a better job of reviewing corporate tax returns.
"We'd love to have a perfect world where everyone files the right amount and et cetera, but that's not reality," DePasquale said. "Really, it does fall upon the Department of Revenue to get this right, and that's not what's happening right now."
The auditor general's office reviewed more than 20,000 corporate tax returns.
