Huber Heights also offering tax amnesty program
The city of Huber Heights is offering a one-time income tax amnesty program through Oct. 31 for citizens to file and pay delinquent income taxes before an IRS database comparison.
There will be no penalty and reduced interest if paid in full by Oct. 31. Individual, business and withholding accounts are all covered by the amnesty. In order to participate in the amnesty, a completed return must be filed for all the required tax years. Payments of taxes and interest are due at the time of filing, unless other arrangements are made.
Huber Heights city tax forms can be downloaded at www.hhoh.org/income-tax.html. The city’s Income Tax Division also can assist in the preparation, free of charge.
For more information, contact the Income Tax Division at (937) 237-2976 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The city of Kettering is offering a 3-month tax amnesty program for people who owe back taxes to the city. The amnesty program is part of a move to make sure all required adult residents are paying municipal income tax to the city.
If residents who owe back taxes come forward beginning Oct. 15, they will have until Dec. 14, 2012, to arrange for paying tax and interest. Penalties will be waived. After that, others will be pursued for full payments and penalties going back six years.
The new requirement to file municipal income tax returns will take effect with taxes due in April 2013. Like many local governments, the city is looking for ways to make up for losses in state funding and property tax collection without raising rates. Officials say that one way is to ensure that everyone who is required to pays the city’s 2.25 percent income tax.
The city expects to net an additional half a million dollars in the first year of the municipal tax filing requirement.
“Mandatory filing is the only way you are going to get close to 100 percent of your tax base to pay their fair share,” said finance director Nancy Gregory.
“We don’t know the exact number of residents who should have been filing but have not. Based on data from other cities that have mandatory filing, we estimate that our revenues (after additional expenses) will increase in year one by between $500,000 and $900,000. We have hired two full-time staff members and anticipate hiring two additional part-time employees.”
Some who will file returns for the first time “may be under the impression that because they work in another jurisdiction and have taxes withheld there, they have fulfilled their obligation,” Gregory said.
The majority of new accounts will be for residents who were not required to file in the past — those whose only income was wages from which Kettering tax was withheld. Others may include residents who were unaware of their filing requirement in the past.
Kettering’s tax rate increased in 2007 from 1.75 percent to 2.25 percent. Gregory said there may be residents who didn’t realize they needed to file returns and pay tax to Kettering based on the difference between Kettering’s tax rate and the rate of the city where they are employed. State law grants precedence to the city of employment.
The City of Dayton’s rate is 2.25 percent, the same as Kettering’s, but Centerville’s is 1.75 percent. Unincorporated areas may levy no income tax, meaning the full 2.25 percent of earnings there is owed to Kettering.
With a few exceptions, all residents 18 and older will now be required to file annual city returns.
“It’s conceivable we may double the number of accounts we have,” Gregory said. “But many of them are people with full withholding who will not owe anything.”
Permanent exemptions will be granted for permanently retired and permanently disabled residents who have only non-taxable income for city purposes — Social Security, pensions, interest and dividends. They may use the Declaration of Exemption Return as their annual Kettering return and can sign up now. They don’t have to wait.
An annual exemption from filing will be allowed for active-duty military, unemployed residents or those with no reportable income or loss for the year. They also can use the Declaration of Exemption Return.
Kettering’s Income Tax Division is located in the North Building of the Government Center at 3600 Shroyer Road. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Call (937) 296-2502 or contact the division by email: kettering.tax@ketteringoh.org.
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