With one week to go until the July 15 income tax filing deadline, about five million Ohio taxpayers have filed their Ohio income tax return. Ohio typically has about 5.5 million total filers.
The tax filing deadline this year was extended three months beyond the traditional April 15th deadline due to the general and widespread disruptions caused by the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Ohio Tax Commissioner Jeff McClain is urging those who have not filed yet to chose to file an electronic return to help expedite the process for all involved. “I'm encouraged to see that we've had a pretty sizable increase in electronic filing this year; about 93% of our returns so far are paperless, that's up about 4% from last year. Electronic filing cuts down on errors and speeds up processing of returns, and that helps us hold down costs.”
Commissioner McClain says paperless filing clearly speeds up the issuing of refunds. Refunds requested by electronic return are issued within 15 business days; refunds requested via a paper return typically take 8-10 weeks to issue. Taxpayers who find they need more time to prepare a return must file for a federal extension with the IRS. Ohio does not have a separate process for filing extensions but does honor the federal extension. For those who owe additional tax, extensions do not provide additional time to pay. Tax owed remains due by the July 15 deadline.
Taxpayers who need information or assistance with their return can visit the Department's web site at tax.ohio.gov, or call the Taxpayer Services line, toll-free, at 1-800-282-1780 from 8:00a.m.-5:00p.m., Monday through Friday. Hours will be extended to 7:00p.m. on Wednesday, July 15.