Bill Would Affect Ohio’s Withholding Taxes During COVID-19

This week, Sen. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) introduced her long anticipated Senate Bill 352, which would repeal Sec. 29 from House Bill 197. That section has allowed manufacturers and other Ohio businesses to continue withholding employees income tax from the business’ principal location and not employees’ homes. With many Ohioans working remotely due to COVID-19, the General Assembly acted wisely to save businesses the burden, expense and compliance nightmare of revamping their tax systems in the midst of the pandemic.

Over the summer, Sen. Roegner and others have discussed repealing the provision in HB 197 so that withholdings would be redirected to the local governments of an employee’s home address if he/she is working remotely. The bill comes on the heels of the Buckeye Institute’s lawsuit over the provision in HB 197.

The OMA has a small working group discussing longer term solutions regarding this issue. We will discuss the topic at the OMA’s Aug. 26 Government Affairs Committee meeting. 8/13/2020