live in columbus & work in new albany

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
January 20, 2023
2 replies
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hello -

i live in a columbus apartment & work in new albany. i just moved here in august and have no clue how to do ohio state, work & residency taxes. there's only state & local taxes to file in pa & it's simple.

can anyone offer guidance on what taxes i'm supposed to file please? or point me to the best place to get guidance? i hear it's a pain in the ass to do ohio taxes.

Best answer by balundy

I am in the same boat as you - moved to Columbus in September and work in New Albany but am still lost on RITA, CCA and Columbus City taxes. It looks like the company took out taxes for New Albany, but now what? In Turbotax there are questions about what school district you live in and whether you owe more taxes? Wayyy more complicated than NY. Have you found out what we need to do?

We don't need to file Rita taxes. Go to crisp.columbus.gov to file Columbus local taxes. Create your account & file online there.

I agree - what's with ohio taxes? Seriously, there's no need for it to be so confusing. Pittsburgh local taxes are so simple.

DMarkM1

The best place to go for guidance is TurboTax. Follow the prompts available to you in the program interviews and TurboTax will populate all the required forms for you. It appears from your question you moved from PA to OH in August. Therefore you will be working part-year returns for each of those states.

In the federal interview, beginning with the "My Info" section is where you will prompt TurboTax to generate the proper state forms. You will indicate your resident state is OH and that you lived in another state and select PA as the other state and enter the date you moved.

After completing the rest of the "MY Info" section you will enter your income. Entering your W2(s) will separate the income by the state it was earned in according to boxes 16-20.

Once you complete all the federal interviews you will move to the state interviews where you will be asked where you lived and worked to generate the proper local taxes.

Use the "help" and "learn more" links as you progress and don't hesitate to come back here to ask any questions if you get stuck.

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balundyAuthor

is it an issue if i still have a pa drivers license? i'm on a 2 year work contract and had to rent an apartment in columbus for those 2 years and may not stay in columbus after the 2 years are up so i didn't bother with changing my drivers license.

also on my w-2 my employers address has a po box in columbus but the actual facility i work in is in new albany. does that make a difference?

thanks

Hal_Al

Employee

Your PA drivers license is meaningless, unless you still maintain a residence in PA. Even then, it's unlikely that you are anything other than a part year resident of both PA & OH. You may have heard of a reciprocity agreement between PA & OH. That only applies to full year residents and is not applicable to city income tax.

Some Ohio Cities have an income tax. Any Ohio city, with an income tax, is allowed to have withholding taken out of your pay while you worked in that city. Your employer is required to do that withholding. You can't get a refund unless it was improperly withheld, i.e. you didn't actually work there for all or part of the time that your employer was withholding. If you live in a city with an income tax, you are subject to that city's tax as well. The city you live in will usually allow a credit or partial credit for the withheld tax you paid to the work location city.

You normally only have to file a return in the city you live in. It is not necessary to file one in the city you work in, if different.

You will file a part year Columbus city return. If your employer did not withhold New Albany tax, you should ask them what's up (e.g., your work location is not in the New Albany City Limits).

TurboTax can not, officially, do a Columbus City return. Columbus Income Tax web site https://www.columbus.gov/incometaxdivision/

Hal_Al

Employee

There are 2 state wide agencies that help Ohio Cities collect City Income taxes. One is CCA (Central Collection Agency) and the other, larger one, is RITA (Regional Income Tax Agency). There is a pull down list of cities, in Turbo Tax(TT), for both City Tax Forms (CCA) & RITA. TurboTax can only do RITA & CCA cities. But many Ohio cities (including Columbus) use neither agency. These cities design their own forms and require you to use them. You can get paper copies from the individual city. Most are available at the city’s web site. Many cities will prepare the tax return for you, but you have to go to city hall in person. Some may have on line filing (try the city web site). Although they won't usually admit it, some will even accept CCA forms. So you could try filling out a CCA form on TurboTax and mailing it to your city. But, I actually find it easier to fill out a city return by hand or at the city, CCA or RITA web site, than to use TT. Things don't happen automatically and you need to know what you’re doing. The actual city forms are easier to follow than the TT interview.

TT cannot e-file an Ohio City or RITA return. It must be printed and mailed.

Columbus will accept CCA forms. In the Ohio program, you will reach a screen titled "A few things before we wrap up your state taxes" (Other tax Situations at the Summary Screen). Scroll down to Ohio City Taxes. Press Start or revisit. On the next page select City tax forms. You cannot e-file, but will have to print & mail.

Columbus Income Tax web site https://www.columbus.gov/incometaxdivision/