Back to Norwood's new mandatory tax filing

While on hiatus, we saved a short Enquirer blurb about Norwood’s new mandatory earnings tax ordinance. Treasurer Malony is now on the record with a figure by which he expects to increase earnings taxes for the City:


“Tax law applies to all over 15
THE ENQUIRER
As of Jan. 1, every Norwood resident over 15 years old must file a city earnings tax return for 2006 - even if no taxes are due. Norwood City Council approved the new law this past year. Norwood has a 2 percent earnings tax.

For more information, call the city's earnings tax department at 513-458-4590 or see Norwood's Web site, www.norwood-ohio.com/tax.html.

The mandatory filing is expected to increase Norwood's annual earnings tax revenue by as much as $200,000 to $300,000, said Tim Molony, city treasurer.
The filing deadline is April 15.”

A lively November debate about this among our readers, linked in the headline above, uncovered some interesting information from the Performance Audit. If Mr. Molony’s estimate of an additional $200,000 to $300,000 is plausible, that probably means he expects to identify around 1,000 “new” taxpayers owing the City an average of $222 each. Is that realistic - adding 1,000 previously unidentified, non-paying (shame on them) Norwood residents to the earnings tax rolls, or is Mr. Malony using his own formula apart from the Performance Audit? Frankly, we’re skeptical about his forecast of the potential return on the City’s investment in this endeavor, especially if one of our November debaters was correct about it being in the neighborhood of an extra $100,000 expense (per year, apparently) to collect it. Down the road, we’ll be looking for some cold hard numbers from Mr. Molony proving this is a worthwhile venture for Norwood taxpayers.