> Parks> Golf> Hiking and Biking Trails> Events> Summer Fun Guide
> Events> Things To Do> Neighborhoods> Hotels> Restaurants> Visitor Maps
Andrew J. Ginther, Mayor
City Council
> Nicholas J. Bankston> Lourdes Barroso de Padilla > Elizabeth C. Brown> Rob Dorans > Shayla Favor > Shannon G. Hardin> Emmanuel V. Remy
Agendas
Contact City Council
Columbus › City Auditor › Income Tax › Tax Facts › Income Tax FAQs
Yes, and the help is FREE! We have auditors available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday who will review your records and prepare your city tax return for you at NO COST. Note that we will prepare only your city return (not federal or state) and we cannot help you with or prepare returns for cities that we don't administer.
If you a question you need answered, call us at (614) 645-7370 during regular business hours.
If you want help with your Federal or State returns, contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 or the Ohio Department of Taxation at 1-800-282-1780.
Local tax is due first to the city in which the income was actually earned. As a secondary factor, you may have an obligation to your city of residence.
For example: If you work in a city that has a 1% local tax rate and reside in a city that has a 2.5% local tax rate and allows 100% credit for local tax paid to your work city, your local tax obligation is 1% to the city of employment and 1.5% to the city of residence.
First, don't always rely on the mailing address to determine the city in which you live or work. The U.S. Postal Service establishes mailing addresses based upon the Post Office that serves your area, not the city in which you may actually live or work. Similarly, you cannot rely on your School District, since they don't always follow the city boundaries.
A. If you are a registered voter, it should be easy to determine your city of residence. If you vote for the mayor of a city, you live in that city. For information on how to register to vote, contact the Franklin County Board of Elections at (614) 462-3100. If you recently moved or are not a registered voter, you may call the City of Columbus at (614) 645-7370 and tell the representative that you wish to verify your city of residence.
B. Employers may also call (614) 645-7370 to verify the city in which their employees are working.
You will normally have to remit two types of city taxes: the net profits tax and (if you have employees) the employee withholding tax.
The first is the tax due on profits of your business, whether your business is a sole proprietorship, corporation or partnership. Incidentally, all the cities whose taxes are administered by Columbus tax the net profits earned within each city by S-corporations at the corporate level. As such, the individual shareholders of S-corps are not taxed. Columbus and Harrisburg require partnerships and the limited liability companies (LLC's) to file and remit at the business level on behalf of all partners. All businesses, with the exception of sole proprietorships, file their city taxes using Form BR-25. Additional information on the net profits tax for businesses other than sole proprietorships is available in the instructions for the BR-25.
Sole proprietorships file by reporting their Federal Schedule C income on the proprietor's individual city return (Form IR-25). Additional information is available in the instructions for the IR-25.
To remit the second type of tax, the tax withheld from your employees' wages, you will need to establish a withholding account with us. You do this by filing a Form IT-47, which is a simple questionnaire. Employers are liable for all city withholding taxes that should have been withheld from their employee's wages EVEN if those taxes were not, in fact, withheld. Because of this obligation, you'll want to make sure you set-up your employer withholding account as soon as you hire employees. You can call (614) 645-7370 to request to have a copy of the IT-47 mailed to you download Form IT-47.
We know that receiving refunds in a timely manner is important to our taxpayers. We strive to process refund requests as quickly as possible. Some taxing agencies issue refunds up front and “chase” any improperly refunded money later after auditing. Here at the City, we audit refund requests up front, which safeguards taxpayer money and helps prevent fraud. Refund requests are processed in the order in which they are received. In some situations, a filed return requesting a refund may be incomplete. If that happens, the auditor to whom the refund is assigned will send a letter to the taxpayer requesting any additional information needed to complete the return.
Because each return is unique and must be audited before a refund can be issued, we are not able to tell you exactly when your refund will be received. Under state law, municipalities do not have to pay interest on any overpayment so long as it is refunded within ninety days after the final filing date of the annual return or ninety days after the completed return is filed, whichever is later. However, the Division strives to process returns more quickly than that. You are always welcome to call the Division if you have questions or concerns about your refund request, but please keep in mind that the auditor with whom you speak must work the oldest completed returns first and will not be able to expedite your refund