Businesses that overpay their taxes would be able to get refunds automatically – without having to apply for them – under a bill introduced last week. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
The law requiring businesses to be notified if they’ve overpaid their taxes could be the first law of its kind among the surrounding states, most of which require businesses to file for a refund. Tax commissioner Joe Testa says the refunds can be issued as credits for future payments or as cash.
Testa: Much of it will be just cash, directly sent to the taxpayer. In some cases it will be credited over, if it's still an active business. And part of this bill is to give us the tools to do that more efficiantly. So it's really a little of both”
The bill comes after the state inspector general found that the tax department failed to refund more than $30 million in overpayments by businesses and sometimes ignored refund requests. Testa says that since there is no law requiring refunds to be paid back to businesses, no law was broken, so no employees is in trouble.