Roemer's Bill to Simplify Tax Filing Passes Ohio House

The Ohio House of Representatives today passed House Bill 228, sponsored by State Representative Bill Roemer (R–Richfield), which would streamline filing processes for municipal net profits taxes. Currently, businesses can opt into a system run by the Ohio Department of Taxation to pay their municipal net profits tax to the state, which then distributes the revenue to the localities to which the taxes are owed. However, those businesses are still required to notify each municipality in which they owe tax when they opt into the system. 

“The current system for filing municipal net profits tax in Ohio creates unnecessary paperwork for our hard-working business owners,” said Roemer. “As if the complications of the tax code itself weren’t enough, the state also requires businesses to jump through unnecessary administrative hoops to meet their tax obligations. This bill streamlines and simplifies this process, so our business owners can spend more time creating jobs and contributing to our local economies, instead of complying with burdensome filing requirements.”

Under the bill, rather than businesses notifying each municipality, the state would do so - easing the workload on business owners. The new law would utilize an existing web portal at the Department of Taxation to securely transfer information between the state and local governments. It would also extend the taxpayer’s deadline to opt in or opt out of state administration of the municipal net profit tax to April 15th — a date which coincides with the due date of the taxpayer’s first estimated tax payment.

The bill passed the Ohio House of Representatives 88-1. It will now head to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.