State law was amended in the most recent budget bill to allow Ohio’s Department of Taxation to require annual commercial activity tax (CAT) taxpayers to file and pay electronically for returns filed on or after January 1, 2014.

CAT is an annual tax imposed on the privilege of doing business in Ohio, measured by gross receipts from business activities in Ohio. Businesses with Ohio taxable gross receipts of $150,000 or more per calendar year must register for the CAT, file all the applicable returns and make all corresponding payments.

Taxpayers may file and pay electronically through the Ohio Business Gateway at business.ohio.gov. Alternatively, annual taxpayers may use TeleFile as a means for filing and paying the annual CAT return electronically beginning in April 2014.

For tax periods beginning on January 1, 2014, and thereafter, the annual minimum tax (AMT) is a tiered structure, and taxpayers pay an amount that corresponds with their overall commercial activity. The taxpayer uses the previous calendar year’s taxable gross receipts to determine the current year’s AMT. For more information, please refer to information release CAT 2013-05 – Commercial Activity Tax: Annual Minimum Tax Tiered Structure- Issued October, 2013.

Beginning in calendar year 2013, calendar quarter taxpayers applied the full $1 million exclusion amount to the first calendar quarter return for that calendar year and were eligible to carry forward and apply any unused exclusion amount to subsequent calendar quarters within that same calendar year. Any unused exclusion amount from calendar year 2012 was not able to be carried forward into calendar year 2013.

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