There is nothing uglier than a tax form, and so my bosses at the Post-Gazette didn't buy my argument that we should reprint the one that could be worth more than any coupon we run all year.

I readily concede that the form is 8 1/2 by 11 inches of bureaucratic verbiage, an ugly gray mess that could stop clocks. But if you worked in the city and earned less than $12,000 last year, it could be worth $42 to you.

		Tax refund links Pittsburgh EM-1 Refund Form Frequently Asked Questions About Pittsburgh's $52 Tax Municipal Tax Collectors in Allegheny County

So before this column's through, there will be a phone number to call for the form. If you're reading this via the Internet, you can just click on the link beside the column to get the form.

Why should we go to this trouble?

In a city with tens of thousands of high school and college students, there is no shortage of part-time work, but even a strapped city shouldn't be balancing its budget on narrow backs.

You've read that argument in this space before, but I was inspired to spread the refund form about the time I noticed it was not among the city tax forms recently mailed to city residents' homes.

A spokesman for Mayor Ravenstahl said the city treasurer would honor any full form reprinted in the newspaper, provided it was full size and legible, so that's an idea editors of college newspapers might consider.

We'll do it another way, maybe a better way. If you call 263-1601 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and ask for the Emergency & Municipal Services Refund Form, the PG will mail you one. We'll even spring for the postage.

Before anyone rushes to the phone, though, remember Pittsburgh is one of more than 700 Pennsylvania communities that siphons checks large and small each January in this way. The city form won't do you any good if you work for low pay somewhere else.

Workers employed elsewhere who think they might be eligible for a refund will have to look for the right municipal office in the blue pages of their phone books. Or, if they're reading this column on-line, they can click the link to the Allegheny County treasurer's listing of municipal tax collectors within the county.

Many communities impose the tax on people making far less than $12,000, which is itself now less than a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns.

The General Assembly passed a bill last year to change this confiscatory tax from $52 in one lump sum in January to a dollar a week throughout the year. That would have been far more manageable for the working poor, but Gov. Ed Rendell vetoed that bill after he was re-elected.

That bill also would have stopped Social Security payments from counting toward the income threshold, but the tax threshold remains based on "total income." So a senior citizen who receives more than $12,000 in Social Security could theoretically work one hour at the minimum wage and owe $52 for his trouble.

What was it that Steve Lopez, former columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer used to say? Pennsylvania: Land of Giants.

There could be as many horror stories as there are part-time jobs, but here's an exemplary one from a reader whose son works at the McDonald's in Castle Shannon.

"My 15-year-old son got his first job in November. He was warned about this tax but still taken aback when he got his first paycheck -- for 68 cents, due to the 2006 tax.

"He got one full paycheck after that, and then, in his third paycheck, right after the first of the year, he got socked again [for 2007]. This time his take-home pay was about $2.''

Now you know the value of a job in the Keystone State, kid.

His mother said she called the Castle Shannon tax collector and heard the wage ceiling was set at $3,900, but he can get all but $5 back for 2006. The Keystone Oaks School District keeps that.

Most people don't make those calls, and so the system keeps workers from money they've earned and are owed. It's estimated that last year, only about one in five workers in Pittsburgh making less than $12,000 got the refund.