Maisonet took the train from North Philadelphia to Center City to pay a bill for his daughter, who has been out of work. He also wore a T-shirt with an image of Benjamin Franklin, who has been credited with a saying perfect for the occasion: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
Joblessness was a common problem among those who had fallen behind. So were deaths of loved ones, which often leads to tax delinquency when heirs don't know a property exists, or the bill goes to an address where no one lives.
City officials would not say Friday whether Philadelphia's biggest delinquent taxpayer, New China Inc., had taken advantage of the 54-day amnesty. The company owes $3.97 million after failing to pay some wage, business-privilege, and parking taxes from a Chinatown parking garage it operated between 1993 and 2001, according to city records.
Wilson Parking now operates that garage, but no one from that company returned calls for comment.
Wai Hung Sze, who is listed in public documents as New China's chief executive officer, was not at his Schuylkill Township, Chester County, home Friday.
He paid $500,000 for the house in 2001, according to public records. A woman who answered the door there and gave her name as Anna said she was Sze's sister-in-law. Sze was in Hong Kong and has been out of the area for at least three years, she said.
Sze and three of his brothers moved into the house in 2001, said a neighbor who did not want to be identified. The house was often busy with activity - particularly at night - with many cars and apparent family members coming and going, the neighbor said. "There was nothing mean or weird about them," the neighbor said. "They kept to themselves, and we just thought that maybe it was because of their culture."
