Yes, there is a statute of limitation on Ohio City Taxes!

It’s tax time again. With current economic conditions, it pays to know your rights when it comes to city income taxes.  Everyone should pay city taxes, but there’s also a point where the threats from the city and  the unreasonable penalties and interest, are, well, ….. unreasonable.

Read and understand the the Ohio city tax laws, and empower yourself to stand up for your rights.  Protect yourself and don’t allow the city to threaten and intimidate when it comes to city income taxes.

Some highlights of Ohio city tax laws and issues:

1. You can be arrested, within state mandated time limits,  for failure to file a city tax return.

2. Unless you committed fraud, you can not be arrested for failure to pay, the Ohio constitution specifically prohibits imprisonment for a debt – including a city tax debt.

3. Legal action to collect a tax debt, must be brought by a city within three years for failure to pay taxes due, after a return was filed.  This includes penalties and interest.

4. Legal action for failure to file, or fraud, must be commenced within six years of the tax due date.

5. After the three and six year statute of limitations, Ohio cites have no legal authority to take legal action.

6. Cities will send demand letters and threaten to arrest taxpayers in an attempt to collect past taxes – even when they have no legal authority to start legal action.

7. City tax departments love to play word games. They will tell you that there’s no statute of limitation that forgives a tax liability. That is absolutely true. The law does not forgive a tax liability based on any statute of limitations. However, and this is an important distinction, what cities fail to tell tax payers is that the law very definitely puts specific time limits on how long a city can legally pursue you for failure to pay or failure to file.  After the statute of limitations expire, you will technically still owe the taxes, but the city has no legal authority to do anything about it.

Ohio Revised Code & Ohio State Constitution:

718.12 Statute of limitations.

(A) Civil actions to recover municipal income taxes and penalties and interest on municipal income taxes shall be brought within three years after the tax was due or the return was filed, whichever is later.

(B) Prosecutions for an offense made punishable under a municipal ordinance imposing an income tax shall be commenced within three years after the commission of the offense, provided that in the case of fraud, failure to file a return, or the omission of twenty-five per cent or more of income required to be reported, prosecutions may be commenced within six years after the commission of the offense.

(C) Claims for refund of municipal income taxes must be brought within the time limitation provided in division (A) of this section.

(D) Interest shall be allowed and paid on any overpayment by a taxpayer of any municipal income tax obligation from the date of the overpayment until the date of the refund of the overpayment, except that if any overpayment is refunded within ninety days after the final filing date of the annual return or ninety days after the complete return is filed, whichever is later, no interest shall be allowed on the refunded overpayment. For purposes of computing the payment of interest on overpayments, no amount of tax for any taxable year shall be treated as having been paid before the date on which the tax return for that year was due without regard to any extension of time for filing that return. The interest shall be paid at the rate of interest prescribed by section 5703.47 of the Revised Code.

Effective Date: 07-26-2000

Click here to visit the Lawwriter website and see this statute

The Ohio Constitution on debt and imprisonment:

§ 1.15 No imprisonment for debt (1851)

No person shall be imprisoned for debt in any civil action, on mesne or final process, unless in cases of fraud.

Click here to visit this page of the Ohio Constitution

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and none of the articles or opinions on DelawarePulse.com should be considered as “legal advice”. The opinions and links provided here are specifically to allow residents to become empowered through education, to stand up for their rights.

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