NWOTCA

MEETING DATE:  1/17/07

 

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 9:30 a.m. at the new recreation building, classroom C, in Bowling Green, Ohio.

 

Updates on legislation/OML news

Legislation

Janet (Fremont) passed out copies of a bill proposed by Representative Jeff Wagner that would amend ORC 718.01 and 718.02 to allow Ohio municipalities the ability to amend their ordinances to allow a deduction for self-employed individuals who pay into health savings accounts.  The group agreed that such a move would drive municipalities further from uniformity and open the door for more amendments to the tax code.  After discussion, it was decided that Angie (Sylvania) would write a friendly letter to Mr. Wagner explaining our group’s position on this matter ending with a listing of the municipalities that make up NWOTCA.  She will also pass a copy of this letter on to other state tax groups.

OML

Angie said the OML group met on December 1, 2006.  There were two primary topics of discussion.  (1) Is unused sick or vacation time, or a retirement buy-out of employees of nonprofit enterprises (schools, hospitals) taxable to us when it is rolled into an annuity?  It appears that if the action was mandatory, then it is nontaxable to us; if optional, it may be taxable.  It doesn’t sound like it will even show up on the W-2s.  Angie has information available that she received at the meeting if anyone is interested in more detail.  (2) Some communities may need to change language in their ordinance regarding out-of-state employees working in their community.  Angie has information available on this, also.

 

OBG

Ohio Business Gateway is hoping to have the withholding portion of their system in place by January 29th.  They will send e-mail notification of all activity, regardless of whether or not there was any monetary transaction involved.  They are also working on file-uploads, which would allow preparers to upload their forms directly into the Gateway system rather than having to re-enter all the information into Gateway’s format.

 

Extension Site

The group decided not to pursue our own extension site since it is cost prohibitive and already available through the Ohio Business Gateway website.

 

Administrator/Staff Seminar

We discussed scheduling a full day seminar sometime in September or October with topics of interest to municipal administrators and their staff.  Further discussion will take place at the March meeting.  A few factors to think about include: 

  • Date – September or October
  • Location – What would constitute a centralized location for group members?  Mike (Maumee) offered to check into whether or not Maumee’s new police facility would be available, if we are interested in meeting in Maumee.
  • Topics – Preparation of business returns, ethics, computer fraud/theft, business writing and grammar/customer service/organizational tips
  • Speakers – National companies that advertise group presentations, speakers who have appeared at other seminars we have attended, local university professors

Members are asked to estimate how many members of their office would attend so that we can get an approximate head-count at the next meeting.

 

Meeting Schedule

Date                                         Location

March 7, 2007                         Whitehouse

May 16, 2007                          Port Clinton     

September 19, 2007                 Archbold

November 14, 2007                 To be decided

(OML annual tax meeting will be in Dublin, Ohio – July 11-13)

 

Speaker/Demonstration for Our Next Meeting in March

We will try to set up demonstrations for tracing services with CBC and/or Lexis Nexis (Accurint) at the March meeting.

 

Meeting to Share

The group decided to schedule a meeting devoted exclusively to sharing problems and possible solutions to situations commissioners have encountered and are not sure how to deal with.  The first meeting of this type is set for Tuesday, February 13th at 9:30 a.m. in Oregon.

 

Next Meeting

The next regular meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 7th at 9:30 a.m. in Whitehouse.