Ohio Mistakenly Promises Taxpayers Whopping Tax Refunds

Over 10,000 residents in Ohio received letters claiming they would be sent huge tax refunds. One woman, Denise Bossetti, was sent a letter telling her to expect a $200 million check in the mail. So, who’s thinking a move to Ohio might just be a lucrative venture?

From AccountingToday.com:

“I thought, ‘They are going to have a big negative when they cut that check,’” Bossetti told the Sandusky Register. “We had a big laugh. I kept saying to Charlie, ‘What’s it like to live with someone with $200 million?’ He said, ‘Let’s wait till we get the check.’”

The Ohio Department of Taxation admitted that it has sent approximately 9,700 letters to taxpayers advising them of the hugely exaggerated refunds.

Ohio is facing a projected budget deficit of approximately $8 billion.

More here

Low-Tax States will Gain Seats, High-Tax States will Lose Them

From the Washington Examiner:

Migration from high-tax states to states with lower taxes and less government spending will dramatically alter the composition of future Congresses, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform.

Eight states are projected to gain at least one congressional seat under reapportionment following the 2010 Census: Texas (four seats), Florida (two seats), Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington (one seat each). Their average top state personal income tax rate: 2.8 percent.

By contrast, New York and Ohio are likely to lose two seats each, while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will be down one apiece. The average top state personal income tax rate in these loser states: 6.05 percent.

The state and local tax burden is nearly a third lower in states with growing populations, ATR found. As a result, per capita government spending is also lower: $4,008 for states gaining congressional seats, $5,117 for states losing them.

And, as ATR notes, “in eight of ten losers, workers can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. In 7 of the 8 gainers, workers are given a choice whether to join or contribute financially to a union.”

Winds of Change: Ohio Legislature Passes Renewable Energy Tax Reform

It’s about time we find ways to utilize renewable energy sources in the U.S. while creating the jobs that go with them. Ohio is proposing seven new wind farms in their quest for renewable energy according to Wind and Solar Jobs for Ohio, a grassroots coalition in Ohio.

Passing the bill, known as Sub Senate Bill 232, was a bipartisan effort. Both parties put aside their differences to bring Ohio's tax structure for wind development in line those of surrounding states. With this vote, Ohio lawmakers have positioned the state to create thousands of Ohio manufacturing, construction, operations and maintenance jobs in the wind industry and protected the existing manufacturing jobs resulting from new wind turbine orders.

This renewable energy tax reform strengthened the renewable market and secured millions of dollars in new tax revenue for local communities in Ohio.

You can read the full article here.

JPMorgan Chase Gets Ohio Tax Break To Create 1,000 Jobs

From BizJournals.com:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. was awarded incentives by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to help the bank create 1,000 jobs in Columbus.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) will save about $14 million during 15 years under the terms of a state incentive approved Monday. The financial services company also is set to gain $8.3 million in tax credits and cash from the city of Columbus.

The company received the 15-year, 75 percent tax credit against its state tax obligation in exchange for its pledge to create 1,000 jobs in Columbus and 150 jobs in Westerville during the next five years. About 900 of those jobs would be created during the next three years.

The state tax deal requires the company to keep the jobs in the region for 30 years.

Columbus has offered JPMorgan Chase two incentives that would bring in an additional $4.5 million in the city’s coffers over eight years, according to the city.

A proposed eight-year, 35 percent Job Growth Incentive from the city would return an estimated $2.5 million of individual payroll taxes withheld to the company over the term of the incentive. The city also has offered a 10-year, 65 percent Job Creation Tax Credit worth $5.8 million over the term. That credit would be applied against the company’s corporate income tax obligation to the city.

City Council will consider the incentive package in May.

Nearly 11,000 of the current 14,000 JPMorgan Chase jobs in the region are in Columbus and nearly 3,000 jobs in Westerville, according to bank spokesman Jeff Lyttle.

About 8,000 jobs are at the company’s operations center at Polaris Centers of Commerce and about 3,000 are at Easton, he said.

The distribution of the jobs at office buildings in Columbus and Westerville remains unclear.

“There’s still some moving parts to settle,” Lyttle said.

JPMorgan Chase also is considering sites in New York, Michigan, Louisiana and Texas.

Report: Ohio Tax Climate In Top 10 For Small Biz

Ohio has become one of the top 10 best places to run a small business in the US, claims the Dayton Business Journal. You can find a snippet of their post below, but the full article can be read here.

Ohio has climbed into the top 10 of an annual ranking of states with tax climates a business advocacy group considers friendly to small companies and entrepreneurs.

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council in its Business Tax Index 2009 ranked the state 10th based on 16 various tax measures combined into a single score. Those measures include a state’s top personal income tax rate and capital gains tax rate along with its sales, unemployment, gasoline and property taxes.

Ohio was ranked 14th on the council’s list a year ago.

Topping the list this year was South Dakota, followed by Nevada, Wyoming, Washington and Texas. The study considered the District of Columbia’s tax climate the unfriendliest to small business. It was followed by New Jersey, Minnesota, Maine, California and New York state.

Ohio fared best in the report’s look at states’ top corporate capital gains tax rates and corporate income tax rates, ranking sixth in both measures. A breakdown of states’ gasoline taxes was the state’s worst showing, Ohio ranking in the bottom 20 for its levy of 28 cents a gallon.