(a) Each employer within or doing business within the City, shall deduct at the time of payment of such salaries, wages, commissions or other compensation, the tax levied under this chapter. 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) Employers shall pay to the City all income taxes withheld or required to be deducted and withheld on either a monthly or quarterly basis depending on the amount of taxes involved according to the following payment schedule.
(1) Semi-monthly payments of the taxes withheld are to be made by an employer if (i) the total taxes deducted in the prior calendar year were $12,000 or more, or (ii) the amount of taxes deducted for any month in the preceding quarter exceeded $1,000. Such payments shall be paid to the City within three banking days after the fifteenth and last day of each month.
(2) Monthly payments of taxes withheld shall be made by an employer if the taxes withheld in the prior calendar year were more than one thousand one hundred ninety-nine dollars ($1,199) or if the taxes withheld during any month of the preceding quarter exceeded one hundred dollars ($100).
Such payments shall be paid to the City within fifteen days after the close of each calendar month.
(3) All employers not required to make monthly or semi-monthly payments of taxes withheld under this section, shall make quarterly payments no later than the last day of the month following the end of each quarter.
(4) Effective July 1, 2005, every agent (third party) representing an employer filing monthly or semi-monthly as prescribed by the City, shall make payment by the electronic funds transfer (EFT) methods prescribed by the City, unless exemption from this requirement is given by the Finance Director or his delegate.
(c) Each employer who maintains a place of business in the City and other branches, must also withhold the tax from employees residing in the City but working at another branch of the employer, even though the payroll records and place of payment are outside the City.
(d) Every employer doing business within the City on a temporary basis shall pay to the City all income taxes withheld or required to be deducted and withheld on a monthly basis, regardless of the amount of taxes involved. Such payment shall be paid to the City within fifteen days after the close of each calendar month. An employer is "doing business within the City on a temporary basis" when the employer maintains a place of business in the City or does business within the City for a period which the employer does not expect to exceed one year.
(e) The employer shall make and file a return on a form furnished by the Income Tax Division, 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 City.
(f) Each employer on or before February 28, unless written request for thirty days’ extension is made to and granted by the Finance Director following any calendar year in which such deductions have been made, or should have been made by any employer shall file with the Finance Director or his delegate an information return (Westerville Withholding Statement of Wages Paid and Westerville Income Tax Withheld), for each employee from whom income tax has been or should have been withheld showing the name and address of the employee, the total amount of salaries, wages, commissions and other compensation paid to the employee during the year, and the amount of City income tax withheld from each employee. In addition, each Form (W-2) shall show the employer's name, address, and City account number. An adding machine tape or list of amount of tax withheld and taxable wages as shown on the W-2's shall be attached with the number of W-2's shown. Any return not so filed shall be subject to a late filing penalty of five dollars ($5.00) per day for each and every day they remain in violation to a maximum of three hundred dollars ($300.00). In addition to the late filing penalty, any return which remains un-filed more than two months after its due date shall be subject to the penalties provided under Section 191.14.
(g) Any person, including corporations, partnerships, employers, estates and trusts, who files 250 or more information returns of form W-2 for any calendar year, must file these returns using magnetic media or such other process as determined acceptable to the Finance Director. All requirements apply separately to both original and corrected forms.
(h) In addition to the above wage reporting requirements, any person paying money to an individual or independent contractor shall report such payment. The information should be reported on Federal Form 1099 and filed yearly with the Tax Administrator on or before February 28th. Any return not so filed shall be subject to a late filing penalty of five dollars ($5.00) per day for each and every day they remain in violation to a maximum of three hundred dollars ($300.00). In addition to the late filing penalty, any return which remains un-filed more than two months after its due date shall be subject to the penalties provided under Section 191.14.
(i) Every employer or officer of a corporation is deemed to be a trustee for this City in collecting and holding the tax required under this chapter to be withheld and the funds so collected by such withholding are deemed to be trust funds.
(j) The officer or the employee having control or supervision of or charged with the responsibility of filing the report and making payment is personally liable for failure to file the report or pay the tax due as required by this section. The dissolution of a corporation does not discharge an officer's or employee's liability for a failure of the corporation to file returns or pay tax due prior to dissolution.
(Ord. 04-52. Passed 12-7-04.)