Lower Merion, PA Local Taxes & Fees: Business Tax Classification (2026)

Chapter 138, Article III, Mercantile License Tax, adopted by Ordinance No. 1777 in 1976, is how Lower Merion Township classifies and taxes businesses operating within it. Section 138-25 sorts taxpayers into three categories: a wholesale dealer or vendor, one who sells only to other retail or wholesale dealers; a retail dealer or vendor, one who sells directly to consumers; and a wholesale and retail dealer or vendor, one who does both and is taxed on each stream separately. The Collector, the Township's Chief Financial Officer/Director of Finance or a designee, administers the tax.

Section 138-26 requires every such business, and any restaurant or place selling food, drink or refreshments, to apply for a mercantile license for each place of business by April 15 of the tax year or before starting business, and to pay a license fee set in Chapter A167; failing to obtain the license costs $30 per year unlicensed, though the Collector may abate that penalty for voluntary compliance within 60 days. Section 138-27 sets the tax itself at one mill on each dollar of gross volume of business for wholesale vendors, one mill for retail vendors and restaurants, and, for a combined wholesale-and-retail operation, one mill on the wholesale volume and one mill on the retail volume computed separately.

Section 138-28 spells out how gross volume is estimated for businesses operating a full year, a partial year, or on a temporary, seasonal or itinerant basis, defined in Section 138-25 as conducted at one location for under 60 consecutive days.