(a) (1) Each employer, agent of an employer, or other payer located or doing business in the City of Amherst shall withhold from each employee an amount equal to the qualifying wages of the employee earned by the employee in the City of Amherst multiplied by the applicable rate of the City of Amherst's income tax, except for qualifying wages for which withholding is not required under section 192.11 of this Chapter or division (d) or (f) of this section. An employer, agent of an employer, or other payer shall deduct and withhold the tax from qualifying wages on the date that the employer, agent, or other payer directly, indirectly, or constructively pays the qualifying wages to, or credits the qualifying wages to the benefit of, the employee.
(2) In addition to withholding the amounts required under division (a)(1) of this section, an employer, agent of an employer, or other payer may also deduct and withhold, on the request of an employee, taxes for the municipal corporation in which the employee is a resident.
(b) (1) An employer, agent of an employer, or other payer shall remit to the Tax Administrator of the City of Amherst the greater of the income taxes deducted and withheld or the income taxes required to be deducted and withheld by the employer, agent, or other payer, along with any report required by the Tax Administrator to accompany such payment, according to the following schedule:
A. Any employer, agent of an employer, or other payer not required to make payments under division (b)(1)B. of this section of taxes required to be deducted and withheld shall make quarterly payments to the Tax Administrator not later than the last day of the month following the last day of each calendar quarter.
B. Taxes required to be deducted and withheld shall be remitted monthly to the Tax Administrator if the total taxes deducted and withheld or required to be deducted and withheld by the employer, agent, or other payer on behalf of the municipal corporation in the preceding calendar year exceeded two thousand three hundred ninety-nine dollars, or if the total amount of taxes deducted and withheld or required to be deducted and withheld on behalf of the City of Amherst in any month of the preceding calendar quarter exceeded two hundred dollars. Payment under division (b)(1)B. of this section shall be made to the Tax Administrator not later than fifteen days after the last day of each month.
(c) An employer, agent of an employer, or other payer shall make and file a return showing the amount of tax withheld by the employer, agent, or other payer from the qualifying wages of each employee and remitted to the Tax Administrator. A return filed by an employer, agent, or other payer under this division shall be accepted by the City of Amherst as the return required of an employee whose sole income subject to the tax under this chapter is the qualifying wages reported by the employee's employer, agent of an employer, or other payer, unless the City of Amherst requires all resident individual taxpayers to file a tax return under Section 192.23 of this Chapter.
(d) An employer, agent of an employer, or other payer is not required to withhold municipal income tax with respect to an individual's disqualifying disposition of an incentive stock option if, at the time of the disqualifying disposition, the individual is not an employee of either the corporation with respect to whose stock the option has been issued or of such corporation's successor entity.
(e) (1) An employee is not relieved from liability for a tax by the failure of the employer, agent of an employer, or other payer to withhold the tax as required under this chapter or by the employer's, agent's, or other payer's exemption from the requirement to withhold the tax.
(2) The failure of an employer, agent of an employer, or other payer to remit to the City of Amherst the tax withheld relieves the employee from liability for that tax unless the employee colluded with the employer, agent, or other payer in connection with the failure to remit the tax withheld.
(f) Compensation deferred before June 26, 2003, is not subject to any municipal corporation income tax or municipal income tax withholding requirement to the extent the deferred compensation does not constitute qualifying wages at the time the deferred compensation is paid or distributed.
(g) Each employer, agent of an employer, or other payer required to withhold taxes is liable for the payment of that amount required to be withheld, whether or not such taxes have been withheld, and such amount shall be deemed to be held in trust for the City of Amherst until such time as the withheld amount is remitted to the Tax Administrator.
(h) On or before the last day of February of each year, an employer shall file a Withholding Reconciliation Return with the Tax Administrator listing the names, addresses, and social security numbers of all employees from whose qualifying wages tax was withheld or should have been withheld for the City of Amherst during the preceding calendar year, the amount of tax withheld, if any, from each such employee's qualifying wage, the total amount of qualifying wages paid to such employee during the preceding calendar year, the name of every other municipal corporation for which tax was withheld or should have been withheld from such employee during the preceding calendar year, any other information required for federal income tax reporting purposes on Internal Revenue Service form W-2 or its equivalent form with respect to such employee, and other information as may be required by the Tax Administrator.
(i) The officer or the employee of the employer, agent of an employer, or other payer with control or direct supervision of or charged with the responsibility for withholding the tax or filing the reports and making payments as required by this section, shall be personally liable for a failure to file a report or pay the tax due as required by this section. The dissolution of an employer, agent of an employer, or other payer does not discharge the officer's or employee's liability for a failure of the employer, agent of an employer, or other payer to file returns or pay any tax due.
(j) An employer is required to deduct and withhold municipal income tax on tips and gratuities received by the employer's employees and constituting qualifying wages only to the extent that the tips and gratuities are under the employer's control. For the purposes of this division, a tip or gratuity is under the employer's control if the tip or gratuity is paid by the customer to the employer for subsequent remittance to the employee, or if the customer pays the tip or gratuity by credit card, debit card, or other electronic means.
(k) A Tax Administrator shall consider any tax withheld by an employer at the request of an employee when such tax is not otherwise required to be withheld by this Chapter to be tax required to be withheld and remitted for the purposes of this section.
(Ord. 24-09. Passed 2-26-24.)