A lot of towns and cities in Ohio are now depending on RITA or the Regional Income Tax Agency to collect income taxes from people who work in those cities.

But if you've been working from home, you might be able to ask for that income tax money back, because technically, you haven't been working in that city, you've been home.

Andrew Reigstad is a tax preparer for TAX 29 in Poland. 

He says towns and cities in Ohio use RITA because they basically do all the work.

"More and more cities are joining RITA because they are able to streamline the process of tax collection," said Reigstad.

The RITA refund form in question is called a FORM 10-A that you can download off of their website. It will ask for the number of days you worked outside the city where you pay taxes.

This refund basically only works if you live in a place that RITA doesn't serve, like any township.
Townships can't collect income taxes.

TAX 29 charges around $25 to do the form for you, but you'll still need to take it to your employer.

"You can fill it out yourself but you do need to bring it to your payroll or HR to verify and sign off that you do not live in the city," added Reigstad.

Once you fill it out and mail to RITA you could be in for a long wait to get that refund, if you even get it at all. Cities have recently sued because they don't want this huge loss of income due to the pandemic.

RITA plans to hold all refund requests in a suspended status until all litigation is concluded.
It could take months or a year or more.
But it could be worth the wait.

For example, someone making $50,000 who lives in a township but works in Youngstown where the income tax rate is 2.75%, that would be a $1,375 potential refund.
By the way the refund form is nothing new. jobs like construction work or truck driving, they've benefited from this for years because they seldom work in the same spot where their paychecks come from.

Link to the RITA form 10A:   https://www.ritaohio.com/media/131813/Form10A.pdf

Cities served by RITA...meaning, if you live in one of these places you won't qualify for the COVID refund.