Monday was tax day for federal, state and local governments. And the Ohio Department of Taxation worked late, while already having processed millions of returns and paying even more in refunds.
The state expects to process around 5.5 million returns, with a half a million to a million – or around 20% of them – coming in over the weekend and on tax day, said David Peck, the tax program administrator of the personal and school district income tax division.
“We paid out so far refunds $1.9 billion in refunds. So we are getting those refunds out to the taxpayers," Peck said.
The state also processed returns for those who live in the 210 school districts that levy income taxes - about a third of all districts in Ohio.
"We've processed about 250,000 of those returns so far and issued about $18 million worth of refunds for the school districts," Peck said.
Peck noted this was the first filing season for a new system called OH|TAX. It allows taxpayers to file returns for free along with viewing returns and making payments.
Nearly 97% of Ohio's taxpayers file electronically, Peck said.
"We encourage that because it's secure, it's fast. They have wizards out there to help you catch the errors that you may have by filing by paper," Peck said. "If you're due a refund, you get that refund back faster compared to the old traditional way of filing by paper."
