(a) In accordance with rules and regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of Taxation, each employer within or doing business within the City shall deduct at the time of the payment or allocation of such salary, wage, commission or other compensation, the tax of one and one half percent of the gross salaries, wages, commissions or other compensation due by such employer to such employee and shall, when the taxes so deducted exceed four hundred dollars ($400.00) in any month, make a return and pay to the Commissioner of Taxation the amount of taxes so deducted on or before the last day of the next succeeding month, or shall, when the taxes do not exceed four hundred dollars ($400.00) in any month, make a return and pay to the Commissioner the amount of taxes so deducted on or before the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter. The Commissioner of Taxation may revoke the approval of quarterly filing and payments whenever he has reason to believe that the conditions for granting such authorization have changed, were judged incorrectly, were not met or when it is in the best interest of the City of Trenton to do so. Notice of the withdrawal shall be made in writing and in such case the employer shall begin to file in accordance with this section. Such return shall be on a form prescribed by or acceptable to the Commissioner and shall be subject to the rules and regulations prescribed therefore by the Commissioner. 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.
(b) Qualifying wages for withholding are those which are defined in IRC Section 3121(a), generally the Medicare wage in Box 5 of the Form W-2, with an exception to include exempt employees hired before April 1, 1986. IRC Section 125 wages are not included in the federal definition of Medicare wages and do not need to be deducted from Box 5.
(c) Any person who is required to withhold tax from salaries, wages, commissions, and other compensation shall pay all such tax to the City of Trenton in accordance with the provisions of this section. In the event taxes withheld from the salaries, wages, commissions, and other compensation of employees are not paid to the City of Trenton in accordance with the provisions of this section, all officers, members, managers, employees, and trustees having control or supervision of or charged with the responsibility of filing the return and making payment are jointly and severally personally liable for the tax not returned or paid to the City of Trenton as well as any related interest and penalties, and are also liable under the provisions of Section 890.12 hereof. The dissolution, termination, or bankruptcy of a corporation, limited liability company, or business trust does not discharge an officer’s, member’s, manager’s, employee’s, or trustee’s liability for a failure of the corporation, limited liability company, or business trust to file returns or pay said taxes.
(d) Withholding return: list of employees. Each employer shall file a withholding tax reconciliation showing the sum total of all compensation paid all employees, the portion of which, (if any) was not subject to withholding along with an explanation for same, and the portion of which was subject to withholding, together with the amount of such withholdings remitted. Such return shall include information concerning each employee from whom the City of Trenton tax was withheld, showing the name, address, zip code and social security number of each such employee, the total amount of compensation paid during the year and the amount of City of Trenton tax withheld. If the total tax withheld from any employee included tax withheld and remitted to another municipality, the amount of same shall be separately shown on the return of information to the City of Trenton concerning each employee. The withholding tax reconciliation shall be filed by each employer on or before February 28th following the end of such calendar year. Use of a generic form is permissible, although the information requirement remains the same.
(e) In addition to the wage reporting requirements of this section, any person required by the Internal Revenue Service to report on Form 1099-Misc payments to individuals not treated as employees for services performed shall also report such payments to the City of Trenton when the services were performed in the City of Trenton. The information may be submitted on a listing, and shall include the name, address, and social security number (or Federal identification number), and the amount of the payments made. Federal form(s) 1099 may be submitted in lieu of such listing. The information shall be filed annually on or before February 28th following the end of such calendar year.
(f) Domestic servants. No person shall be required to withhold the tax on the wages or other compensation paid domestic servants employed exclusively in or about such person’s residence. However, such domestic servants shall be responsible for filing and paying their own returns and taxes.
(g) Such employer in collecting such tax shall be deemed to hold the same, until payment is made by such employer to the City, as a trustee for the benefit of the City, and any such tax collected by such employer from his employees shall, until the same is paid to the City, be deemed a trust fund in the hands of such employer.
(h) No change in structure by an employer, including a fundamental change, discharges its officers from liability for the employees’ withholding taxes or the officers’ failure to remit funds held in trust, to file tax returns, or to pay taxes. An employee is not relieved from liability for the tax by the failure of the employer to withhold the tax as required by this chapter or by the employer’s exemption from the requirement to withhold the tax. The failure of an employer to remit to the City of Trenton the tax withheld relieves the employee from liability for that tax withheld unless the employee colluded with the employer in connection with the failure to remit the tax withheld.
(Ord. 05-2014. Passed 3-6-14.)