NWOTCA

MEETING DATE: 02/09/05

The meeting was called to order at 9:30 a.m. in the Bowling Green Municipal Building.

Update on legislation/OML news

Andrew Thomas was unable to attend today’s meeting, but provided Angie with notes on what took place at an OML Income Tax Committee Meeting held in Columbus on Friday, February 4^th. Senator Amstutz and former State Tax Commissioner Thomas Zaino were also in attendance. Discussion included the validity of municipalities citing “Home Rule” rights against State rulings, reductions to municipalities of local government fund distributions, and public agreement by House Speaker John Husted, Senate President Bill Harris, and Governor Bob Taft that major changes need to be made to Ohio’s tax laws.

Ohio Business Gateway

Certification packages have been sent out by e-mail. If you have not received one, call 614-644-8018.

Uniformity Discussion

Kris Nelson suggested that the Real Estate Committee might want to postpone any meetings until we see what the State does to municipal tax regulations over the next few months.

The Common Form Committee met on Tuesday, January 25^th. Tim Connor from Shamrock has offered to do a layout for our group at no charge. Mike Rizzo will contact Accountware.

W-2s from 2004

Several cities acknowledged problems with companies that continued to withhold local taxes on Section 125 wages in 2004, in spite of notices having been sent telling them that the Ohio Revised Code no longer allows it. Overall, most cities agreed that refunds would be made only if requested. RITA intends to refund overpayments directly to the company, giving them the responsibility of refunding the money back to their employees.

CATA Forms

Doug attended a seminar in central Ohio for tax preparers at the beginning of this year. Rather than making paper returns available, all of the member cities had their returns copied onto a disc and copies of the disc were provided to preparers. It’s something we may want to consider in the future, but the timing of our seminar would have to be changed from October/November to January.

Field Trip

We discussed the possibility of taking occasional trips to area offices/businesses to observe new technology in use such as bar code scanning, imaging, e-filing, etc. RITA has volunteered to allow our group to tour their facility in Brecksville. Members should contact Angie if they are interested.

Next Meeting

Scheduled for Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. in Bowling Green at the Municipal Building.