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(a) (1) The Tax Administrator shall serve an assessment either by personal service, by certified mail, or by a delivery service authorized under section 5703.056 of the Ohio Revised Code.
(2) The Tax Administrator may deliver the assessment through alternative means as provided in this section, including, but not limited to, delivery by secure electronic mail. Such alternative delivery method must be authorized by the person subject to the assessment.
(3) Once service of the assessment has been made by the Tax Administrator or other municipal official, or the designee of either, the person to whom the assessment is directed may protest the ruling of that assessment by filing an appeal with the Local Board of Tax Review within sixty days after the receipt of service. The delivery of an assessment of the Tax Administrator as prescribed in Section 718.18 of the Revised Code is prima facie evidence that delivery is complete and that the assessment is served.
(b) (1) A person may challenge the presumption of delivery and service as set forth in this division. A person disputing the presumption of delivery and service under this section bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the address to which the assessment was sent was not an address with which the person was associated at the time the Tax Administrator originally mailed the assessment by certified mail. For the purposes of this section, a person is associated with an address at the time the Tax Administrator originally mailed the assessment if, at that time, the person was residing, receiving legal documents, or conducting business at the address; or if, before that time, the person had conducted business at the address and, when the assessment was mailed, the person's agent or the person's affiliate was conducting business at the address. For the purposes of this section, a person's affiliate is any other person that, at the time the assessment was mailed, owned or controlled at least twenty per cent, as determined by voting rights, of the addressee's business.
(2) If a person elects to appeal an assessment on the basis described in division (b)(1) of this section, and if that assessment is subject to collection and is not otherwise appealable, the person must do so within sixty days after the initial contact by the Tax Administrator or other municipal official, or the designee of either, with the person. Nothing in this division prevents the Tax Administrator or other official from entering into a compromise with the person if the person does not actually file such an appeal with the Local Board of Tax Review. (Ord. 31-2015. Passed 12-21-2015.)
(a) (1) The legislative authority of the Municipality shall maintain a Local Board of Tax Review to hear appeals as provided in Ohio Revised Code Chapter 718. All powers and duties vested by ordinances in the Board of Tax Review prior to the adoption of this section are hereby vested in this Board of Tax Review with respect to tax years 2015 and earlier.
(2) The Local Board of Tax Review shall consist of three members who must be domiciled in the Municipality.
Two members shall be appointed by the legislative authority of the Municipality, and may not be employees, elected officials, or contractors with the Municipality at any time during their term or in the five years immediately preceding the date of appointment. One member shall be appointed by the Mayor of the Municipality. This member may be an employee of the Municipality, but may not be the director of finance or equivalent officer, or the Tax Administrator or other similar official or an employee directly involved in municipal tax matters, or any direct subordinate thereof.
(3) The term for members of the Local Board of Tax Review appointed by the legislative authority of the Municipality shall be two years. There is no limit on the number of terms that a member may serve should the member be reappointed by the legislative authority. The board member appointed by the Mayor of the Municipality shall serve at the discretion of the administrative official.
(4) Members of the board of tax review appointed by the legislative authority may be removed by the legislative authority as set forth in Section 718.11(A)(4) of the Revised Code.
(5) A member of the board who, for any reason, ceases to meet the qualifications for the position prescribed by this section shall resign immediately by operation of law.
(6) A vacancy in an unexpired term shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment within sixty days of when the vacancy was created. Any member appointed to fill a vacancy occurring prior to the expiration of the term for which the member's predecessor was appointed shall hold office for the remainder of such term. No vacancy on the board shall impair the power and authority of the remaining members to exercise all the powers of the board.
(7) If a member is temporarily unable to serve on the board due to a conflict of interest, illness, absence, or similar reason, the legislative authority or top administrative official that appointed the member shall appoint another individual to temporarily serve on the board in the member's place. This appointment shall be subject to the same requirements and limitations as are applicable to the appointment of the member temporarily unable to serve.
(8) No member of the Local Board of Tax Review shall receive compensation, fee, or reimbursement of expenses for service on the board.
(9) A member of a Local Board of Tax Review shall not be appointed to or serve on another such board simultaneously.
(b) Whenever a Tax Administrator issues an assessment, the Tax Administrator shall notify the taxpayer in writing at the same time of the taxpayer's right to appeal the assessment, the manner in which the taxpayer may appeal the assessment, and the address to which the appeal should be directed, and to whom the appeal should be directed.
(c) Any person who has been issued an assessment may appeal the assessment to the board by filing a request with the board. The request shall be in writing, shall specify the reason or reasons why the assessment should be deemed incorrect or unlawful, and shall be filed within sixty days after the taxpayer receives the assessment.
(d) The Local Board of Tax Review shall schedule a hearing to be held within sixty days after receiving an appeal of an assessment under division (c) of this section, unless the taxpayer requests additional time to prepare or waives a hearing. If the taxpayer does not waive the hearing, the taxpayer may appear before the board and/or may be represented by an attorney at law, certified public accountant, or other representative. The board may allow a hearing to be continued as jointly agreed to by the parties. In such a case, the hearing must be completed within one hundred twenty days after the first day of the hearing unless the parties agree otherwise.
(e) The board may affirm, reverse, or modify the Tax Administrator's assessment or any part of that assessment. The board shall issue a final determination on the appeal within ninety days after the board's final hearing on the appeal, and send a copy of its final determination by ordinary mail to all of the parties to the appeal within fifteen days after issuing the final determination. The taxpayer or the Tax Administrator may appeal the board's final determination as provided in section 5717.011 of the Ohio Revised Code.
(f) The Local Board of Tax Review created pursuant to this section shall adopt rules governing its procedures, including a schedule of related costs, and shall keep a record of its transactions. The rules governing the Local Board of Tax Review procedures shall be in writing, and may be amended as needed by the Local Board of Tax Review. Such records are not public records available for inspection under section 149.43 of the Ohio Revised Code. For this reason, any documentation, copies of returns or reports, final determinations, or working papers for each case must be maintained in a secure location under the control of the Tax Administrator. No member of the Local Board of Tax Review may remove such documentation, copies of returns or reports, final determinations, or working papers from the hearing. Hearings requested by a taxpayer before a Local Board of Tax Review created pursuant to this section are not meetings of a public body subject to section 121.22 of the Ohio Revised Code. For this reason, such hearings shall not be open to the public, and only those parties to the case may be present during the hearing.
(Ord. 31-2015. Passed 12-21-2015.)
(a) (1) (A) Civil actions to recover municipal income taxes and penalties and interest on municipal income taxes shall be brought within the latter of:
(i) Three years after the tax was due or the return was filed, whichever is later; or
(ii) One year after the conclusion of the qualifying deferral period, if any.
(B) The time limit described in division (a)(1)(A) of this section may be extended at any time if both the Tax Administrator and the employer, agent of the employer, other payer, or taxpayer consent in writing to the extension. Any extension shall also extend for the same period of time the time limit described in division (c) of this section.
(2) As used in this section, "qualifying deferral period" means a period of time beginning and ending as follows:
(A) Beginning on the date a person who is aggrieved by an assessment files with a Local Board of Tax Review the request described in Section 128.18 of this Chapter. That date shall not be affected by any subsequent decision, finding, or holding by any administrative body or court that the Local Board of Tax Review with which the ag-grieved person filed the request did not have jurisdiction to affirm, reverse, or modify the assessment or any part of that assessment.
(B) Ending the later of the sixtieth day after the date on which the final determination of the Local Board of Tax Review becomes final or, if any party appeals from the determination of the Local Board of Tax Review, the sixtieth day after the date on which the final determination of the Local Board of Tax Review is either ultimately affirmed in whole or in part or ultimately reversed and no further appeal of either that affirmation, in whole or in part, or that reversal is available or taken.
(b) Prosecutions for an offense made punishable under a resolution or ordinance imposing an income tax shall be commenced within three years after the commission of the offense, provided that in the case of fraud, failure to file a return, or the omission of twenty-five per cent or more of income required to be reported, prosecutions may be commenced within six years after the commission of the offense.
(c) A claim for a refund of municipal income taxes shall be brought within the time limitation provided in Section 128.096 of this Chapter.
(d) (1) Notwithstanding the fact that an appeal is pending, the petitioner may pay all or a portion of the assessment that is the subject of the appeal. The acceptance of a payment by the Municipality does not prejudice any claim for refund upon final determination of the appeal.
(2) If upon final determination of the appeal an error in the assessment is corrected by the Tax Administrator, upon an appeal so filed or pursuant to a final determination of the Local Board of Tax Review created under Section 128.18 of this Chapter, of the Ohio board of tax appeals, or any court to which the decision of the Ohio board of tax appeals has been appealed, so that the amount due from the party assessed under the corrected assessment is less than the amount paid, there shall be issued to the appellant or to the appellant's assigns or legal representative a refund in the amount of the overpayment as provided by Section 128.096 of this Chapter, with interest on that amount as provided by division (d) of this section.
(e) No civil action to recover municipal income tax or related penalties or interest shall be brought during either of the following time periods:
(1) The period during which a taxpayer has a right to appeal the imposition of that tax or interest or those penalties;
(2) The period during which an appeal related to the imposition of that tax or interest or those penalties is pending.
(Ord. 31-2015. Passed 12-21-2015.)
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