Ohio’s Local Tax Incentive Reporting Due March 31 – Compliance Basics for Communities

Helpful Links:

• Detailed information on all of the incentives administered and/or overseen by the Ohio Department of Development is available at: State Incentives | Development
• All reporting on Community Reinvestment Areas, Enterprise Zones, and Tax Increment Financing Districts must be submitted electronically via the State’s reporting portal, available at: State Incentives | Portal
• Find in-depth information and annual reporting instructions for Community Reinvestment Areas, Enterprise Zones, and Tax Increment Financing Districts on the Ohio Department of Development’s website.

For villages, cities, counties, and townships with real property tax incentive programs there are both short-term and long-term reporting processes that must be followed to ensure compliance with state law. While reporting and monitoring activities should be ongoing throughout the year, March 31 marks an important transition date. By March 31 of each year, political subdivisions must submit annual reports on their Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) districts, Enterprise Zones (EZs), and Community Reinvestment Areas (CRAs) to the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) through the State’s portal.

Reporting Requirements

Each incentive type comes with different reporting requirements, with both CRAs and EZs requiring multiple reports.

• TIFs – A separate report must be submitted for each open TIF, regardless of whether construction activities have begun. All program activities through December 31 of the previous year must be reported.
• EZs – Company Reports must be filed for active exemption agreements; EZs with no active industrial or commercial agreements do not require a company report. Zone Reports must be submitted annually to capture the aggregate activity in the zone, even for zones with no active exemptions. Company Reports should be completed first, to allow for aggregation of data in the Zone Report.
• Post-1994 CRAs – One Area Report per CRA must be submitted to catalogue aggregate activity in CRAs created prior to January 1, 2025, covering all exemptions in the CRA through December 31, 2025. Each Area Report must include a recent map showing all boundaries of the area and any relevant roads, streets, and landmarks that can be used as reference points. The Area Report must be submitted, even for CRAs with no active exemptions. If the CRA allows for residential abatements and has at least one active residential abatement, a Residential Status Report must also be submitted.
• Pre-1994 CRAs – One Annual Report must be submitted for each CRA created prior to July 1, 1994 to address active exemptions during 2025, including projects certified through December 31, 2025. The Annual Report should be accompanied by the latest map depicting the boundaries of the area and any relevant roads, streets, and landmarks that can be used as reference points.

The reporting forms are available on ODOD’s website, under the link for each respective incentive. Local governments must create an account to begin submitting forms through the State’s portal. Because the forms collect a high volume of information, local governments can achieve more accurate and complete reporting by creating simple one-page reporting forms with an attestation, to be sent to each business receiving an exemption.

Once reports are submitted to ODOD, annual activity data should be shared with the appropriate Tax Incentive Review Council (TIRC) for review prior to the TIRC’s annual meeting. The TIRC process, described below, aids in data collection for ODOD’s annual reporting forms.

Penalties

Noncompliance in reporting for EZs and CRAs may cause political subdivisions to incur financial penalties and future development challenges. Until the required reports are filed, noncomplying entities are prohibited from entering into additional incentive agreements. The Director of ODOD also has the authority to direct the county auditor to withhold up to $1,000 of tax distributions owed to the political subdivision per month, until the reports are filed.

What happens before annual reports are due?

As legislation and development agreements are passed for a development project, additional responsibilities for the local legislative body are triggered. First, the authorizing legislation and agreements must be forwarded to ODOD and, as a courtesy, to the county auditor. For TIFs, a copy of the legislation must be sent to ODOD within 15 days of the legislation being passed.[1] For EZs, a copy of the EZ Agreement must be sent to both ODOD and the County Auditor within 15 days of the effective date of the Agreement.[2] Finally, by March 31, local governments must send ODOD a copy of all CRA agreements approved, executed, or amended in the previous year.[3]

Additionally, for TIFs and EZs, an application must be filed with the Department of Taxation’s Division of Tax Equalization, through the DTE 24. This form can be filed any year before the project would be eligible for the exemption. If the property owner is filing the application themselves, generally they must have paid their annual property tax bill in full at the time of submission. CRAs do not require any additional applications to the state, as they are activated by the County Auditor.

The Role of the Tax Incentive Review Council

TIRCs convene annually to monitor compliance and performance of TIFs, EZs, and CRAs and make recommendations to municipalities, counties, and townships on the status of their incentives. The county auditor is the statutory chair of each TIRC in the county, and the remaining members are generally made up of representatives from the legislative authority and board of education, members of the public, and residents, though specific required membership varies depending on the incentive type and the legislative body. TIRCs must make their recommendations to continue, modify, or terminate incentive agreements by September 1 of each year, and local legislative bodies must vote to accept, modify, or reject the TIRC’s recommendations within 60 days of receiving the recommendation.[4] The TIRC meeting materials and final recommendations form the basis of the annual reports due to the state every March 31.

If you have questions about your jurisdiction’s reporting responsibilities or are interested in assistance on economic development issues, contact a member of Bricker Graydon Wyatt’s Public Finance Team.\

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[1] R.C. 5709.40; R.C. 5709.73; R.C. 5709.78

[2] R.C. 5709.63

[3] R.C. 3735.672

[4] R.C. 5709.85