I, along with almost all I.T. staff, began working from home March 2020.
My employer continued sending in occupational taxes to BG from Mar 2020 through Apr 2022.
I worked outside of the city and county where I was being taxed from Mar 2020 through Apr 2022.
I sent in a refund request to Bowling Green KY for 2020 and 2021.
They contacted me and after hours of arguing and talking with the CFO and city attorney; they sent my 2021 refund but sent a denial letter along with my 2020 refund request forms.
They said that due to COVID they would not be returning any of my 2020 taxes paid in since my employer did not make my work from home status permanent until sometime in 2021.
They also said that they had worked it out with other surrounding localities "including Nashville" ; that they would not issue refunds if the other would not as well. This good ole boy agreement is all and good if the tax rates are the same... However; the tax person in my locality said they had not "worked" out anything with Bowling Green" and Nashville doesn't even have occupational taxes.
The form was updated in 2020 with the following comment in 5X red font by direction from the CFO and city attorney: (It was an internal policy and was not from a change to the city code)
Is refund being requested due to a temporary location of job duties due to Covid 19? YES NO
**If YES stop here and contact our office concerning special instructions concerning refund requests**
The local statute does not say anything about what status your employer has labeled you and says:
b. An employee who has compensation attributable to activities performed outside the City, based on time spent outside the City, whose employer has withheld and remitted to the City the withholdings license fee on the compensation attributable to activities performed outside the City may file for a refund within two (2) years of the date prescribed by law for the filing of a return. The employee shall provide a schedule and computation sufficient to verify the refund claim and the City may confirm with the employer the percentage of time spent outside the City and the amount of compensation attributable to activities performed outside the City prior to approval of the refund.
I believe the supreme court ruled in 2016 against localities taxing residents who performed work in other localities and said it opened the door for double taxation since taxes were already owed to the locality where the work was performed.
The only guidance regarding a temporary status in the occupational tax code is when you work outside the locality for less than 5% of the year, which in this case they will not process your claim. I think this is to cover vacations, sick days, and the one-off cases.
I contacted the office which would perform the audits for the occupational taxes paid and they said they would research and call me back around the middle of July, but they indicated that they were internal auditors and couldn't override a decision made by the tax office.
The difference between the tax rate in BG and where I work is about double so of the approx. 1800 paid in, I would only have to pay my locality about 900.
I plan to file a small claims suit against the city of BG, but wanted to first post here for your thoughts?
Should I expect that the Judge in the small claims will have any real knowledge of the occupational tax code and will defer to the city attorney's ramble so I would likely have to appeal once to get it higher?
Maybe I should reference the Supreme Court's decision in 2016 in my filing or will this be a waste of time?
My employer continued sending in occupational taxes to BG from Mar 2020 through Apr 2022.
I worked outside of the city and county where I was being taxed from Mar 2020 through Apr 2022.
I sent in a refund request to Bowling Green KY for 2020 and 2021.
They contacted me and after hours of arguing and talking with the CFO and city attorney; they sent my 2021 refund but sent a denial letter along with my 2020 refund request forms.
They said that due to COVID they would not be returning any of my 2020 taxes paid in since my employer did not make my work from home status permanent until sometime in 2021.
They also said that they had worked it out with other surrounding localities "including Nashville" ; that they would not issue refunds if the other would not as well. This good ole boy agreement is all and good if the tax rates are the same... However; the tax person in my locality said they had not "worked" out anything with Bowling Green" and Nashville doesn't even have occupational taxes.
The form was updated in 2020 with the following comment in 5X red font by direction from the CFO and city attorney: (It was an internal policy and was not from a change to the city code)
Is refund being requested due to a temporary location of job duties due to Covid 19? YES NO
**If YES stop here and contact our office concerning special instructions concerning refund requests**
The local statute does not say anything about what status your employer has labeled you and says:
b. An employee who has compensation attributable to activities performed outside the City, based on time spent outside the City, whose employer has withheld and remitted to the City the withholdings license fee on the compensation attributable to activities performed outside the City may file for a refund within two (2) years of the date prescribed by law for the filing of a return. The employee shall provide a schedule and computation sufficient to verify the refund claim and the City may confirm with the employer the percentage of time spent outside the City and the amount of compensation attributable to activities performed outside the City prior to approval of the refund.
I believe the supreme court ruled in 2016 against localities taxing residents who performed work in other localities and said it opened the door for double taxation since taxes were already owed to the locality where the work was performed.
The only guidance regarding a temporary status in the occupational tax code is when you work outside the locality for less than 5% of the year, which in this case they will not process your claim. I think this is to cover vacations, sick days, and the one-off cases.
I contacted the office which would perform the audits for the occupational taxes paid and they said they would research and call me back around the middle of July, but they indicated that they were internal auditors and couldn't override a decision made by the tax office.
The difference between the tax rate in BG and where I work is about double so of the approx. 1800 paid in, I would only have to pay my locality about 900.
I plan to file a small claims suit against the city of BG, but wanted to first post here for your thoughts?
Should I expect that the Judge in the small claims will have any real knowledge of the occupational tax code and will defer to the city attorney's ramble so I would likely have to appeal once to get it higher?
Maybe I should reference the Supreme Court's decision in 2016 in my filing or will this be a waste of time?
