Regional Income Tax Agency

The parking lot was full yesterday outside the Brecksville main office of the Regional Income Tax Agency. Taxpayers were there to get help filing their municipal tax returns.

(Bob Sandrick)

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio – Last-minute tax filers are overwhelming the Regional Income Tax Agency's connection to the Internet, prompting long delays or an inability to connect to the website, said Steven Presley, treasurer of the RITA board and the city administrator and finance director in Pepper Pike.

"The connection that RITA uses is just being slammed," Presley said, adding the agency's servers are working properly.

"People are waiting until the last minute to file their returns," he said. "Whether you go to Honey Baked Ham the Saturday before Easter or wait until the 14th or 15th to file your taxes, there will be a backup."

People have been complaining since the weekend of difficulty connecting to RITA's website. RITA's board of directors discussed the issue at a meeting this morning, he said.

Presley said he couldn't make guarantees for each of the nearly 300 communities RITA serves, but he believes the dozens of Ohio communities that pay RITA to collect municipal income taxes will work with residents, so they can avoid penalties.

"Each city can make that decision, but I can tell you that if people file this week, it in general will not be looked at as being filed late, and penalties wouldn't be applied," Presley said.

RITA also is sending all member communities copies of tax forms they can distribute or post on their own websites, so residents can download them more easily.

Bay Village Mayor Deborah Sutherland sent an email blast to about 1,900 residents Tuesday advising them of the problems with RITA and inviting them to either complete paper forms that can be dropped off at City Hall or contact Finance Director Renee Mahoney to inform her of their difficulties filing online.

"As long as they give me their information, their name and Social Security number, I will tell RITA their return should be considered filed on time," Mahoney said.

Mayor Sutherland's email was sent late Tuesday morning, and by 1 p.m., about a dozen people had called Mahoney. City Hall has paper tax forms available. For those trying to file online, Mahoney is recommending they wait until Wednesday.

"I don't want residents to sit there for hours," Mahoney said of the online wait.

Area libraries, including Porter Public Library in Westlake, also have tax forms on hand. Porter is able to make copies if the supply runs low, a library spokeswoman said.

RITA this year sent postcards to taxpayers informing them it would not routinely mail paper forms this year. It recommended taxpayers file online, call for RITA for forms or download forms from the agency's website.

"So many people are continuing to file online (RITA) didn't want to go to the expense of mailing out forms," Presley said.

RITA took steps it thought would accommodate the additional traffic, he said.

"We expanded bandwidth on the system twice already this year trying to take into account the additional traffic, but more people are waiting until the last minute."

Presley said he hopes people learn from this year to file their taxes or download forms earlier rather than waiting.

"But, people will be people and they wait until the last minute to make that payment," he said.

Presley also is acting finance director for Olmsted Falls.