(a) Each Employer doing Business within the Municipality who employs one or more Employees shall deduct and withhold at the time of payment of such Salaries, Wages, Commissions or Other Compensation, the tax of two percent of the gross Salaries, Wages, Commissions or Other Compensation due by the Employer to the Employee and shall, on or before the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter, make a return showing the amount of taxes so deducted and withheld and a record of payment showing that all taxes deducted and withheld during the quarter have been paid to the Municipality in accordance with the payment schedule prescribed by subsections (b)(1), (b)(2) and (b)(3), hereof. Such Employer shall be liable for the payment of the tax required to be deducted and withheld, whether or not such taxes have in fact been withheld.
Every Employer, officer of a Corporation, or partner or member of an Association or Other Entity, is deemed to be a trustee for this Municipality in collecting and holding the Municipal income tax required under this Section to be deducted and withheld, and the funds so collected by such withholding are deemed to be trust funds.
(b) Employers shall pay to the Municipality all Municipal income taxes deducted and withheld or required to be deducted and withheld on either a semi-monthly, monthly or quarterly basis depending on the amount of taxes deducted and withheld according to the following payment schedule:
(1) Semi-monthly payments of taxes withheld or deducted shall be made by an Employer if the total taxes withheld or deducted in the prior Calendar Year were twelve thousand dollars ($12,000) or more or the amount of taxes withheld or deducted during any month in the preceding quarter exceeded one thousand dollars ($1,000). Such payments shall be paid to the Municipality within five (5) banking days after the fifteenth and the last day of each calendar month.
(2) Monthly payments of taxes withheld or deducted shall be made by an Employer if the total taxes withheld or deducted in the prior Calendar Year were less than twelve thousand dollars ($12,000) but more than one thousand one hundred and ninety-nine dollars ($1,199) or if the taxes withheld or deducted during any month in the preceding quarter exceeded one hundred dollars ($100.00). Such payments shall be paid to the Municipality within five (5) banking days after the last day of each calendar month. However, those taxes accumulated for the third month of the calendar quarter need not be paid until the last day of the calendar month following the end of each calendar quarter.
(3) All Employers not required to make semi-monthly or monthly payments of taxes withheld under subsections (1) and (2) above shall make quarterly payments no later than the last day of the calendar month following the end of each calendar quarter.
(c) Each Employer who maintains a place of Business in the Municipality and another branch within the metropolitan area of the Municipality, shall also deduct or withhold the tax from the Employees residing in the Municipality but working at the Employer’s metropolitan area branch, even though the payroll records and place of payment are outside the Municipality.
(d) The Employer shall make and file a return on a form furnished by or obtainable from the Finance Director or his delegate, showing the amount of tax deducted by the Employer from the Salaries, Wages, Commissions or Other Compensation of any Employee and paid by the Employer to the Municipality. The Municipality shall also accept for filing a generic form of such Employer return and related documents if the generic form, once completed and filed, contains all of the information required to be submitted with the Municipality’s prescribed form and if the Taxpayer or return preparer filing the generic form otherwise complies with the rules and ordinances of the Municipality governing Employer returns. Such Employer’s return shall be accepted as the return required of an Employee whose sole income subject to the tax under this Chapter is the Salaries, Wages, Commissions and Other Compensation returned by the Employer.
(e) Each Employer, on or before the thirty-first day of January of each Calendar year, unless a written request for a thirty-day extension is made to and granted by the Finance Director or his delegate, following any Calendar Year in which such withholdings or deductions as required by this section have been made or should have been made by such Employer, shall make and file with the Finance Director or his delegate an information return on a form furnished by or obtainable from the Finance Director or his delegate, specifically, the Obetz Withholding Statement of Wages Paid and Obetz Income Tax Withheld, for each Employee from whom income tax has been or should have been deducted or withheld, show the name and address of the Employee, the total amount of Salaries, Wages, Commissions and Other Compensation paid such Employee during the year and the amount of Municipal income tax deducted or withheld from each Employee. The Municipality shall also accept for filing a generic form of such information return and related documents if the generic form, once completed and filed, contains all of the information required to be submitted with the Municipality’s prescribed form and if the Taxpayer or return preparer filing the generic form otherwise complies with the rules and ordinances of the Municipality governing the filing of information returns. In addition, each Employer, on or before January 31 of each Calendar year, shall provide each Employee a Form W-2 showing the name, address and social security number of the Employee, the total amount of Salaries, Wages, Commissions and Other Compensation paid to the Employee during the prior Calendar Year and the amount of Municipal income tax deducted or withheld from such Employee. An alternative method of reporting in lieu of submitting Form W-2 must be approved by the Finance Director or his delegate. The Finance Director may provide by uniform rule or regulation for the use of electronic media by Employers for reporting annual wage and tax data.
(f) Where a Resident of the Municipality performs a service for his Employer in another municipality, which services are subject to withholding in the other municipality, the Employer shall have the authority to reduce the withholding to the Municipality to the extent of the tax liability in the other municipality.
(g) The officer or the Employee having control or supervision of or charged with the responsibility of filing the return and making payment shall be personally liable for failure to file the return or pay the tax due as required by this section as well as any related interest and penalties. The dissolution or liquidation of a Corporation, Association or Other Entity does not discharge an officer’s or Employee’s liability for a prior failure of the Corporation, Association or Other Entity to file returns or pay tax due as required by this section.
(h) Failure to file any required documentation in a timely manner is subject to assessment of a late filing penalty.
(i) As used in this Section, “Other Payer” means any Person that pays an individual any item included in the taxable income of the individual, other than the individual’s Employer or that Employer’s agent.
(1) Any Nonresident Employer, agent of such an Employer, or Other Payer that is not situated in the Municipality is not required to deduct and withhold taxes from the taxable income of an individual unless the total amount of tax required to be deducted and withheld for the Municipality on account of all of the Employer’s Employees or all of the Other Payer’s payees exceeds one hundred fifty dollars for a Calendar Year.
If the total amount of tax required to be deducted and withheld on account of all of the Nonresident Employer’s Employees or all of the Other Payer’s payees exceeds one hundred fifty dollars for a Calendar Year, the Municipality may require the Employer, agent, or Other Payer to deduct and withhold taxes in each ensuing year even if the amount required to be deducted and withheld in each of those ensuing years is one hundred fifty dollars or less, except as otherwise provided in Subsection (2) of this Section.
(2) If a Nonresident Employer, agent of such an Employer, or Other Payer that is not situated in the Municipality is required to deduct and withhold taxes for an ensuing year under Subsection (1) of this Section, and the total amount of tax required to be deducted and withheld under that Division in each of three consecutive ensuing years is one hundred fifty dollars or less, the Municipality shall not require the Employer, agent, or Other Payer to deduct and withhold taxes in any year following the last of those consecutive years unless the amount required to be deducted and withheld in any such following year exceeds one hundred fifty dollars.
(Ord. 28-01. Passed 4-16-01.)