Tax officials warn Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation dividends are subject to tax
Print
The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation this month will begin sending out tax forms for the billions in dividends issued to employers over the course of 2020.
The nearly $8 billion distributed in three rounds by the BWC are subject to both the state s Commercial Activity Tax and income tax, when applicable, Ohio Department of Taxation officials told members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 2. The department has been asked to look at this a number of times. We view this as taxable, Tim Lynch, the department s legislative director, told lawmakers. We have not found a way to say that it is not taxable under the CAT. It s a dividend return of, I believe, 372% over the principal (BWC premium), which causes that to be a taxable gross receipt.
Green celebrates successes despite tough 2020
Brian Lisik
Suburbanite correspondent
GREEN Following a year marked by uncertainty and apprehension, Green Mayor Gerard Neugebauer delivered a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2021 in his annual state of the city address Jan. 26.
“Typically, over 300 residents, community and business leaders gather at Raintree Golf and Event Center to hear this address,” Neugebauer said of the virtual address. “But 2020 was not a normal year.”
Neugebauer recounted the city’s response to announcements in early March 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic had “hit Ohio.”
“As we watched the gathering storm with dread, we were unsure of what it would take to weather the storm, to operate a city in a pandemic,” Neugebauer said. “We knew our priority would be public safety. All our employees were essential, but perhaps now in different ways than before.”
Gov. Mike DeWine is proposing a largely state-funded, approximately $1 billion plan to help Ohio businesses and communities to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic as part of two-year state budget recommendations to Ohio lawmakers.
Savings from prior budget cuts and federal funding of other programs, including Medicaid, will cover all but $150 million of the proposed package that will come from direct federal coronavirus relief dollars, DeWine said.
DeWine said his proposed biennial budget contains no tax increases, but seeks a $10 increase in motor vehicle registration fees and a $2 increase to the title fee to help fund the State Highway Patrol. Both fee increases would bring in $127 million a year to help wean the Patrol from general revenue fund tax dollars.
Ohio Workers Comp scouting for actuarial consultant
Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, Columbus, is searching for an actuarial consultant.
The bureau, which oversees $26.8 billion in state insurance assets including the $24 billion State Insurance Fund, issued an RFP due to changes in the bureau s internal actuarial capabilities, necessitating a change in the services the bureau is seeking, according to Dec. 17 actuarial committee meeting materials.
Whether current consultant Oliver Wyman is invited to rebid could not be immediately learned.
The RFP is available on the state of Ohio procurement website. Proposals are due at 2 p.m. EDT on March 30. A tentative award date is June 25.
Kent police highlight bullet-resistant vest purchase following officer shooting [Record-Courier, Kent, Ohio]
Jan. 30 Following a shooting this month in Kent that injured two police officers, the city has approved a grant that has largely reimbursed its police department for the cost of new ballistic vests.
Though the acceptance of the grant is timely, the two events are not related. Kent Police Chief Nicholas Shearer first approached Kent City Council about approving a matching grant on Jan. 6. That meeting was held 10 days before officers Kyle Auckland and Leonard Kunka were shot while responding to a burglary call.
Auckland was shot in the chest on the morning of Jan. 16, when he was among a number of officers responding to a 911 call from a 14-year-old girl who was babysitting at an East Summit Street home. She said a man, who turned out to be 40-year-old Dante Dixon, was trying to enter the residence.