NWOTCA

MEETING DATE: 1/9/08

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 9:30 a.m. in Council Chambers at the City of Oregon, Ohio.

Updates on legislation/OML news

Legislation

Our group discussed the taxability of third party sick pay, since the state legislature included language on this matter as part of the biannual budget. Unfortunately, the language is very cloudy and open to various interpretations. To make things messier, the restrictions on taxability were not instituted until mid-year, and we have been told that the OML may try to get the legislation changed for 2008. Basically, the general interpretation by most cities for guidelines is:

• Regular sick pay that is paid by the employer as a regular part of a paycheck is still taxable.
• Long term third party sick/disability pay (for absences greater than 6 months) is not taxable. It should not appear in Box 5.
• Short-term sick/disability pay that appears in Box 5 is not taxable if it was incurred after July 1, 2007. It would have to be deducted out of the taxable total. How we determine such a thing is a good question. The sponsor of the bill has stated that this was not the intent of the bill. The intent was simply to remove withholding responsibility from the third party payer, not to absolve the taxpayer from having to pay tax on the short-term sick/disability pay.

OML

The next OML meeting is scheduled for February.

Fall 2008 Seminar

Possible speakers:

· Matt Yuskewich, a CPA with the Winterset Group has spoken at several of the OML yearly tax meetings as well as GOATA and other area tax groups.

· Valerie Simonette, from the Ohio Department of Taxation spoke at the most recent OSU Income Tax School in Fremont.

Location: Possibilities include local hotels, the Maumee Theater, Nazareth Hall, local universities.

Time Frame: The group is considering a full day rather than a half day, with break-out sessions in the afternoon that would allow attendees to stop at stations manned by individual cities so they can have specific questions addressed.

Angie will schedule a meeting with committee volunteers to study the options.

Next regular NWOTCA meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 12^th in Whitehouse.