On Monday, the state of Ohio filed a motion asking the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal filed by the plaintiffs in the City of Athens v. McClain lawsuit. This appeal is discretionary, and the Ohio Supreme Court can decide to not hear the case and allow the decision of the appellate court to stand.

As you may recall, the Tenth District Court of Appeals rendered its decision in January of this year. In that decision, the court ruled that provisions of HB 5 and HB 49 that deal with municipal taxation are clearly within the authority of the Ohio Legislature. HB 49 included a provision that allows businesses to opt-in to a centralized collection process through the Ohio Business Gateway. If chosen, administration of the taxes and returns would be done by the Ohio Department of Taxation. This allows businesses to file one return instead of a return for each municipality the business operates in. Ohio has over 930 municipalities. The plaintiffs will now file a response to the motion filed by the state of Ohio.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce will continue to follow this case and its ultimate conclusion. Click here for our last blog post on this subject from Feb. 2018 if you need further background on this topic.