By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com

While some types of police calls are down in the city of Bucyrus, officers are making increasing stops for one violation: failure to file city income tax returns. Bucyrus Law Director Rob Ratliff says it is no accident that the daily police log is showing an ever-increasing number of summonses for failure to file.

“It’s been since late December. It has really increased drastically,” Ratliff said about the number of summonses for failure to file a city income tax return being issued and served.

Ratliff couldn’t help but note the irony of why more summonses were being served.

“Oddly enough the reason for the increase isn’t because of anything we’ve been doing, but the passage of the income tax levy,” Ratliff said. The law director added it was simply a matter of manpower. The levy has allowed the city to hire more officers, so the department is able to serve more summonses.

The city doesn’t realize a tremendous increase in tax revenue with the increases in summonses served. Ratliff said there are a couple of chief reasons people don’t file, and only one really involves not paying taxes due.

One reason is that often city residents don’t realize they need to file even if they have no taxable income. Another is they although they don’t need to file for other reasons, such as they are disabled, they still have to file the proper paperwork with the city’s Income Tax Office to forgo filing.

A third reason is that people have moved in or out of town during the year and still need to file a return for the income they earned while living in Bucyrus.

Ratliff said most Bucyrus employers automatically withhold city income tax, but even then city residents must file a return with the city office. Ratliff said just because you have allowed a tax preparer to do your tax returns doesn’t necessarily mean you have filed a city income tax return.

“People that have their taxes done professionally and file electronically still have paperwork they have to file with the city.”

Ratliff said in addition to back taxes, other costs associated with failing to file a city income tax return include a late fee of $60, $100 in court costs and a fine up to $500 although the typical fine is more like $50. But Ratliff noted that in one recent case a couple came to court with all the requisite paperwork and having filed their taxes, albeit late. In that case the city dropped all charges.

Ratliff says for those who have failed to file, a trip to the city’s income tax office is the first step to rectifying the problem.

“They need to come in to our income tax office, sit down with our income tax professionals up there who will help them get the paperwork they need, get everything filed and get everything taken care of,” Ratliff said. “Then if there are outstanding charges, we can rectify those once all the paperwork is done.”

The city’s Income Tax Office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.