The Finance Department encompasses many duties and responsibilities for the Village.
The Department is staffed by one full-time employee and two part-time employees who are assisted by the Mayor’s
Assistant in preparing minutes of meetings and the Village Secretary who assists in vehicle registration and records management. The Department also prepares
the annual budget for the Village.
All three governmental entities have their specific
filing requirements on whether you have
to file a
return. The federal government and the State of
Ohio base this on several factors
such as income,
filing status and age. The local governments such
as Walton Hills exclude
persons under 18 years of
age and retired individuals.
For individuals under 18 years of age, income is not taxable by the Village or by most communities.
If local taxes are withheld by an employer while
under 18, the local taxes should be refunded by
the municipality that received
the local tax.
We have several employers within the Village that incorrectly deduct local tax from individuals who
are less than 18 years of age. We do not have
any way of knowing this unless
a tax return is filed
by the individual to the Village. In most cases, we
ask the individual to supply the W-2 and proof of
age in order to receive the refund. This would only
apply to persons working in the Village.
If you are under 18 and worked in Macedonia and
your W-2 states that taxes were withheld for Macedonia,
then you are entitled to a refund from the
City of Macedonia. To receive a refund, a tax return
should be filed with the City of Macedonia
through the Regional Income Tax Agency, not the
Village of Walton Hills.
The Village does not tax interest income, retirement
income, pensions, social security, dividends
and capital gains; therefore, individuals who are
retired and have established themselves as
“retired” with the Village do not have to file with the
Village. The Village had required all individuals
over 18 years of age to file for tax years 2006 and
2007 in order to get a feel on who is retired and
receiving income that is not taxable by the Village.
Beginning with the 2008 tax year, individuals who
were coded as retired in the Village’s income tax
software system were not required to file unless
they begin receiving income that is taxable by the
Village.
The majority of local communities in Ohio collect
their own income taxes. This will
be the fourth year
for the Village of Walton Hills in-house tax collections.
Prior to establishing its own collections in November
2006, the Village’s role was primarily assisting
its outside collector with updated residential
and employer information, building permit activity
and property owner information.
The expenses of the Village collecting its own
taxes, which included the upgrade of a part-time
bookkeeper to full-time status, is basically on par to
what the Village was paying an outside collector.
The Village’s cost per transaction with its outside
collector was one of the highest in
the area. In addition,
the Village receives its income tax one
month earlier, enhancing cash
flow to utilize within
the community.
The Village will always have better insight into what’s going on in our community. More tax returns
are filed both for individuals and businesses than
before. In just over three years, the Village has collected
more than $120,000 in taxes by assuring that
businesses who are submitting payroll taxes are
filing net-profit returns and vice versa. Several very
distant rental property owners have also began filing
with the Village who were previously unaware of
the filing requirements with the Village.
The Village prides itself on
its customer service.
The proximity of having the tax office in the Village
is an added benefit
where your municipal income
tax return can be prepared at no cost by a member
of the Finance Department. The Village has specifically
tailored its tax returns and forms for its residents
and employers. Forms can also be
downloaded from the Village’s website. The website’s
new feature allows a tax preparer to enter
income tax information onto an electronic form that
will automatically and accurately calculate one’s
return. Once finished, the return can be printed out
and sent to the Village.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call our Fiscal Officer, Vic J. Nogalo at (440) 735-5028 or e-mail at nogalov@waltonhillsohio.gov.
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