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7 things you need to know about filing your taxes
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
By now, you should have all of your W-2s and 1099s and similarly named financial documents needed to file your federal, state and local taxes.
Ohio’s annual filing season is underway, with millions of returns expected between now and mid-April (or some future date, for residents securing extensions).
Here are seven things you should know about your state taxes and filing requirements and changes in place for 2016:
The Basics
Most Ohio taxpayers have an April 18 deadline for submitting their state taxes, though there are exceptions and extensions (you can find specifics online at www.tax.ohio.gov).
Full- and part-time residents are required to file to account for Ohio earnings, lottery and casino winnings and income from businesses and properties.
The Statistics
For tax year 2013 (the most-recent full-year statistics available), more than 5.4 million Ohio personal income taxes were filed, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation.
Combined, those returns reported more than $384 billion in gross income, with an average adjusted income of $70,871.
Ohio taxpayers claimed $18 billion in personal exemptions (an average of $3,322 per return), according to the tax department. And the net tax liability from returns was close to $8 billion.
The Timing
Nearly 90 percent of Ohio tax returns are filed by the April deadline each year, said Gary Gudmundson, a spokesman for Department of Taxation. About 1 million returns are filed during the final week before the annual deadline.
The Results
Of the returns filed last year, 3.9 million filers (about 79 percent) received a refund, Gudmundson said. About 16 percent of filers had taxes due. The rest (about 500,000 filers) had what the tax department called “zero” returns, meaning they didn’t owe taxes or receive a refund, or they credited overpayments to future tax liabilities.
Taxpayers who file electronically, with the direct deposit option, should receive their refunds in 10-15 business days. Paper returns will take longer.
Word of Warning
If you receive a letter from the Ohio Department of Taxation directing you to take the ID quiz and you haven’t filed your return yet, you should report the potential fraudulent activities on the agency’s website.
“We will then know that when the legitimate taxpayer does file a return, we will be able to expedite the processing of that legitimate return,” Gudmundson said in a released statement.
The Scammers
State tax officials say they’ve blocked more than 297,000 fraudulent income tax returns, seeking nearly $534 million in ill-gotten gain, since 2014.
“Our efforts have saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” Ohio Tax Commissioner Joe Testa said in a released statement. “While these would-be thieves will continue to craft new strategies to steal from Ohioans, we’ll keep finding ways to stop them.”
That means some Ohio filers will have to take security quizzes again this year to prove their identities.
Gudmundson said fewer people will have to take the quiz this year, thanks to rule changes. Last year, about 1.7 million filers were asked questions, and 99 percent answered correctly.
Changes
Remember all those tax cuts state lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich were touting as part of last year’s budget debate? You’ll probably notice the impact during filing season this year.
Individual filers will see a 6.3 percent reduction in rates for all brackets. There’s also a new small business-income deduction, cutting 75 percent on the first $250,000 of income (the deductible moves to 100 percent next year).