181.09 COLLECTION AT SOURCE.

   (a)    Each employer within or doing business within the Municipality shall deduct at the time of payment of such salaries, wages, commissions or other compensation, the tax rate levied by Section 181.03 of the qualifying wages due by the said employer to said employee. 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 or officer of a corporation is deemed to be a trustee for the Municipality 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.

(Ord. 022-2012. Passed 4-17-12.)

   (b)   Employers shall pay to the Municipality all income taxes withheld or required to be deducted and withheld on either a monthly, semi-monthly or quarterly basis depending on the amount of taxes involved according to the following payment schedule:

      (1)   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 in the preceding quarter exceeded one hundred dollars ($100.00) monthly payments of the taxes withheld and/or required to be withheld shall be made by an employer. Such payment shall be made to the Municipality on or before the last day of the month following the month during which the undeposited taxes were withheld. Semi-monthly payments of the taxes deducted are to be made by an employer if the total taxes deducted in the prior calendar year were twelve thousand dollars ($12,000) or more, or the amount of taxes deducted for any month in the preceding quarter exceeded one thousand dollars ($1,000). Semi-monthly payments shall be paid to the Municipality within three banking days after the fifteenth and the last day of the month.

      (2)    All employers not required to make monthly or semi-monthly payments of taxes deducted under subsection (b)(1) above shall make quarterly payments on or before the last day of the month following the end of each quarter.

   (c)   The employer shall make and file a return on a form furnished by the Tax Commissioner or an acceptable generic form, showing the amount of tax deducted by such employer from the salaries, wages, commissions or other compensation of any employee and paid by the employer to the Municipality. Such employer's return shall be accepted as the return required of an employee who is a nonresident individual and whose sole income, subject to the tax under this chapter, is the salaries, wages, commissions and other compensation as properly reflected upon the return by such employer. This provision shall only apply to persons who are in fact "employees" who, as a direct consequence of their employment, are the proper subject of receipt of an IRS W-2 form; this provision shall not apply to recipients of the IRS form 1099 as "independent contractors" from whose compensation no tax has been withheld or a filing by the payer of said compensation.

      (1)    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 service performed shall also report such payments to the Municipality when the services were performed in the Municipality. 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 28 following the end of such calendar year.

      (2)    Domestic Servants. No person shall be required to withhold the tax on the qualifying wages, commissions, other compensation, and other taxable income 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.

         (Ord. 73-05. Passed 12-6-05.)

   (d)    Each employer on or before the last day of February each year, unless written request for thirty days extension is made to and granted by the Tax Commissioner following any calendar year in which such deductions have been made or should have been made by any employer, shall file with the Tax Commissioner an information return (Whitehall Withholding Statement of Wages Paid and Whitehall 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 said employee during the year and the amount of Municipal income tax withheld from each employee.

      (1)   Beginning January 1, 2009, any person, including corporations, partnerships, employers, estates and trusts, who files 250 and 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 Tax Commissioner. All requirements apply separately to both original and corrected forms. Employers filing fewer than 250 W-2's are encouraged, but are not required to remit W-2's electronically.

         (Ord. 80-08. Passed 11-18-08.)

   (e)    Where a resident individual performs services 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.

   (f)    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 prior failure of the corporation to file returns or pay tax due.

   (g)    An employer is not required to make any withholding 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 the corporation with respect to whose stock the option has been issued.

      (1)    An employee is not relieved from liability for a tax by the failure of the employer to withhold the tax as required by a municipal corporation or by the employer's exemption from the requirement to withhold the tax.

      (2)    The failure of an employer to remit to the municipal corporation the tax withheld relieves the employee from liability for that tax unless the employee colluded with the employer in connection with the failure to remit the tax withheld.

      (3)    Compensation deferred before the effective date of this chapter 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.
(Ord. 73-05. Passed 12-6-05.)

   (h)   An individual, association, C Corporation, or other entity engaged in the business of construction work and/or who will perform construction work in the City of Whitehall shall obtain a tax account number, issued by the Income Tax Division, prior to beginning construction work. The Income Tax Division shall also issue a Certification of Registration. Failure to possess a valid Certificate shall be cause for suspension of work by the Building Department, the Department of Development or the Income Tax Division prior to the construction work commencing or during the performance of the construction work. Proof of possession of a valid Certificate shall be necessary to commence or resume suspended construction work. The Certificate of Registration may be revoked by the Income Tax Division for failure by the contractor to remain current in the filing of required tax documents, for failure to remain current in the required payment of taxes and/or for failure to comply with Section 181.09 of this chapter. The contractor further agrees to supply the Income Tax Division with a list of subcontractors’ names, addresses, Social Security or Federal ID numbers and a listing of the services each subcontractor will perform prior to beginning construction work.

(Ord. 68-09. Passed 11-17-09.)

   (i)   Effective January 1, 2007, every agent (third party) representing an employer filing monthly or semi-monthly as prescribed by the City, may make payment by the electronic funds transfer (EFT) methods prescribed by the City, including use of the Ohio Business Gateway.

(Ord. 92-06. Passed 12-19-06.)