Section 718.02. Income subject to tax

This section applies to any taxpayer engaged in a business or profession in a municipal corporation that imposes an income tax in accordance with this chapter, unless the taxpayer is an individual who resides in the municipal corporation or the taxpayer is an electric company, combined company, or telephone company that is subject to and required to file reports under Chapter 5745. of the Revised Code.

(A) Except as otherwise provided in division (B) of this section, net profit from a business or profession conducted both within and without the boundaries of a municipal corporation shall be considered as having a taxable situs in the municipal corporation for purposes of municipal income taxation in the same proportion as the average ratio of the following:

(1) The average original cost of the real property and tangible personal property owned or used by the taxpayer in the business or profession in the municipal corporation during the taxable period to the average original cost of all of the real and tangible personal property owned or used by the taxpayer in the business or profession during the same period, wherever situated.

As used in the preceding paragraph, tangible personal or real property shall include property rented or leased by the taxpayer and the value of such property shall be determined by multiplying the annual rental thereon by eight;

(2) Wages, salaries, and other compensation paid during the taxable period to individuals employed in the business or profession for services performed in the municipal corporation to wages, salaries, and other compensation paid during the same period to individuals employed in the business or profession, wherever the individual's services are performed, excluding compensation from which taxes are not required to be withheld under section 718.011 of the Revised Code;

(3) Total gross receipts of the business or profession from sales and rentals made and services performed during the taxable period in the municipal corporation to total gross receipts of the business or profession during the same period from sales, rentals, and services, wherever made or performed.

(B)

(1) If the apportionment factors described in division (A) of this section do not fairly represent the extent of a taxpayer's business activity in a municipal corporation, the taxpayer may request, or the tax administrator of the municipal corporation may require, that the taxpayer use, with respect to all or any portion of the income of the taxpayer, an alternative apportionment method involving one or more of the following:

(a) Separate accounting;

(b) The exclusion of one or more of the factors;

(c) The inclusion of one or more additional factors that would provide for a more fair apportionment of the income of the taxpayer to the municipal corporation;

(d) A modification of one or more of the factors.

(2) A taxpayer request to use an alternative apportionment method shall be in writing and shall accompany a tax return, timely filed appeal of an assessment, or timely filed amended tax return. The taxpayer may use the requested alternative method unless the tax administrator denies the request in an assessment issued within the period prescribed by division (A) of section 718.12 of the Revised Code.

(3) A tax administrator may require a taxpayer to use an alternative apportionment method as described in division (B)(1) of this section only by issuing an assessment to the taxpayer within the period prescribed by division (A) of section 718.12 of the Revised Code.

(4) Nothing in division (B) of this section nullifies or otherwise affects any alternative apportionment arrangement approved by a tax administrator or otherwise agreed upon by both the tax administrator and taxpayer before January 1, 2016.

(C) As used in division (A)(2) of this section, "wages, salaries, and other compensation" includes only wages, salaries, or other compensation paid to an employee for services performed at any of the following locations:

(1) A location that is owned, controlled, or used by, rented to, or under the possession of one of the following:

(a) The employer;

(b) A vendor, customer, client, or patient of the employer, or a related member of such a vendor, customer, client, or patient;

(c) A vendor, customer, client, or patient of a person described in division (C)(1)(b) of this section, or a related member of such a vendor, customer, client, or patient.

(2) Any location at which a trial, appeal, hearing, investigation, inquiry, review, court-martial, or similar administrative, judicial, or legislative matter or proceeding is being conducted, provided that the compensation is paid for services performed for, or on behalf of, the employer or that the employee's presence at the location directly or indirectly benefits the employer;

(3) Any other location, if the tax administrator determines that the employer directed the employee to perform the services at the other location in lieu of a location described in division (C)(1) or (2) of this section solely in order to avoid or reduce the employer's municipal income tax liability. If a tax administrator makes such a determination, the employer may dispute the determination by establishing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the tax administrator's determination was unreasonable.

(D) For the purposes of division (A)(3) of this section, receipts from sales and rentals made and services performed shall be sitused to a municipal corporation as follows:

(1) Gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property shall be sitused to the municipal corporation in which the sale originated. For the purposes of this division, a sale of property originates in a municipal corporation if, regardless of where title passes, the property meets any of the following criteria:

(a) The property is shipped to or delivered within the municipal corporation from a stock of goods located within the municipal corporation.

(b) The property is delivered within the municipal corporation from a location outside the municipal corporation, provided the taxpayer is regularly engaged through its own employees in the solicitation or promotion of sales within such municipal corporation and the sales result from such solicitation or promotion.

(c) The property is shipped from a place within the municipal corporation to purchasers outside the municipal corporation, provided that the taxpayer is not, through its own employees, regularly engaged in the solicitation or promotion of sales at the place where delivery is made.

(2) Gross receipts from the sale of services shall be sitused to the municipal corporation to the extent that such services are performed in the municipal corporation.

(3) To the extent included in income, gross receipts from the sale of real property located in the municipal corporation shall be sitused to the municipal corporation.

(4) To the extent included in income, gross receipts from rents and royalties from real property located in the municipal corporation shall be sitused to the municipal corporation.

(5) Gross receipts from rents and royalties from tangible personal property shall be sitused to the municipal corporation based upon the extent to which the tangible personal property is used in the municipal corporation.

(E) The net profit received by an individual taxpayer from the rental of real estate owned directly by the individual or by a disregarded entity owned by the individual shall be subject to tax only by the municipal corporation in which the property generating the net profit is located and the municipal corporation in which the individual taxpayer that receives the net profit resides.

A municipal corporation shall allow such taxpayers to elect to use separate accounting for the purpose of calculating net profit sitused under this division to the municipal corporation in which the property is located.

(F)

(1) Except as provided in division (F)(2) of this section, commissions received by a real estate agent or broker relating to the sale, purchase, or lease of real estate shall be sitused to the municipal corporation in which the real estate is located. Net profit reported by the real estate agent or broker shall be allocated to a municipal corporation based upon the ratio of the commissions the agent or broker received from the sale, purchase, or lease of real estate located in the municipal corporation to the commissions received from the sale, purchase, or lease of real estate everywhere in the taxable year.

(2) An individual who is a resident of a municipal corporation that imposes a municipal income tax shall report the individual's net profit from all real estate activity on the individual's annual tax return for that municipal corporation. The individual may claim a credit for taxes the individual paid on such net profit to another municipal corporation to the extent that such a credit is allowed under the municipal income tax ordinance, or rules of the municipal corporation of residence.

(G) If, in computing a taxpayer's adjusted federal taxable income, the taxpayer deducted any amount with respect to a stock option granted to an employee, and if the employee is not required to include in the employee's income any such amount or a portion thereof because it is exempted from taxation under divisions (C)(12) and (R)(1)(d) of section 718.01 of the Revised Code by a municipal corporation to which the taxpayer has apportioned a portion of its net profit, the taxpayer shall add the amount that is exempt from taxation to the taxpayer's net profit that was apportioned to that municipal corporation. In no case shall a taxpayer be required to add to its net profit that was apportioned to that municipal corporation any amount other than the amount upon which the employee would be required to pay tax were the amount related to the stock option not exempted from taxation.

This division applies solely for the purpose of making an adjustment to the amount of a taxpayer's net profit that was apportioned to a municipal corporation under this section.

(H) When calculating the ratios described in division (A) of this section for the purposes of that division or division (B) of this section, the owner of a disregarded entity shall include in the owner's ratios the property, payroll, and gross receipts of such disregarded entity.

Amended by 130th General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 5, §1, eff. 3/23/2015, applicable to municipal taxable years beginning on or after 1/1/2016.

Effective Date: 09-26-2003; 12-30-2004; 2007 HB24 12-21-2007