Additional employees sue over city taxes in Ohio; Columbus concedes full refund deserved

(The Center Square) – An Ohio think tank’s push against what it calls unfair and unconstitutional state income tax laws and how they have been enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic received a boost recently.

The Buckeye Institute, a research and educational policy organization, received a court victory in accase involving an Ohio worker who was forced to pay income tax to the city where he would normally work, even though he had spent the majority of the past year working from home in another city.

That victory also led to The Buckeye Institute filing a new lawsuit Thursday in Cuyahoga County Court of Common pleas on behalf of Dr. Manal Morsy, a Pennsylvania resident who works in Cleveland. Morsy has not worked in Cleveland, nor the state, for more than year but continues to pay the city’s municipal income tax.

Morsy lives in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb, and commuted to her workplace in Cleveland before the pandemic. She’d spend the week in Cleveland working and would return home on the weekends. Since March 2020, however, she has worked exclusively from her Pennsylvania home.

“Dr. Morsy has not set foot in the State of Ohio since March 2020, but she is forced to pay income tax to the city of Cleveland – a city more than 400 miles from her home – as well as her hometown of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania,” said Jay Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center and Morsy’s attorney.

“This continuing violation of the United States and Ohio constitutions offends the basic principles of fairness and equity, and The Buckeye Institute urges the courts to bring an end to this modern day form of taxation without representation.”

A Columbus judged ruled recently in favor of Eric Denison, who lived in Westerville but worked in Columbus until the pandemic hit. Since then, he worked from his home but continued to pay Columbus taxes.

According to The Buckeye Institute, the city of Columbus acknowledged Denison was owed a full refund on the taxes he had to pay while working outside the city.

“The Buckeye Institute is glad that the city of Columbus acknowledged that its ability to tax nonresidents indeed has limits,” Carson said. “We are hopeful that courts in Buckeye’s remaining cases, including the one filed [Thursday], will recognize – as the Ohio Supreme Court has – that a city can only tax nonresidents for work that is actually performed in the city.”

The institute has similar cases in Hamilton County, Lucas County and another in Franklin County.