Ohio Department of Taxation Implements Identity Theft Safeguards That May Delay 2015 Refunds

To help protect Ohio taxpayers from identity theft, the Ohio Department of Taxation (ODT) is implementing additional safeguards that will cause some 2015 tax refunds to be delayed. The new safeguards include an additional up-front filter that will be applied to all returns requesting a refund to analyze the demographic information reported on a return. This analysis will then assign a “probability of fraud” factor that will determine how the return is then further processed by ODT.

If a return is pulled for review, ODT’s additional security measures will require some taxpayers to successfully complete an Identification Confirmation Quiz, before the return will continue to be processed. If a taxpayer’s return is selected for identity confirmation they will receive a letter from ODT containing instructions for confirming their identity.

The additional screening and security measures will slow the processing of electronic and paper returns, and the issuance of refunds. Electronic returns requesting a refund may take up to 15 days to be direct deposited this year, and paper returns could take up to 30 days for a physical check to be mailed out.

If you have been notified by ODT of potential ID theft, please contact your Meaden & Moore representative. You can also call Natalie Takacs or Karen McCarthy at (216) 241-3272 with questions.

Learn more about taxes in Ohio our previous blog post: "Municipal Tax Reform in Ohio"

This blog was co-authored by Natalie Takacs:

Natalie Takacs is a Senior Manager is our Personal Tax Advisory Group. With over 20 years of experience working in the areas of individual, trust, and estate and gift tax, Natalie is skilled in managing the complex tax issues and transactions that her clients encounter when making financial and business decisions. In her free time, Natalie enjoys traveling and spending time with her family.

Image credit: Ohio Statehouse by Joseph via Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0