If you live in a municipality that works with the Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA), paying local taxes is not just a recommendation—it’s a requirement. However, life gets busy, and sometimes tax obligations fall through the cracks. But what happens if you don’t pay your RITA taxes? Understanding the consequences and the steps you can take to resolve back-tax issues is crucial to avoiding mounting penalties and financial stress.
Penalties for Not Paying RITA Taxes
When you don’t pay your RITA taxes, penalties and interest can quickly start to add up. RITA is known for aggressively pursuing unpaid local taxes, whether they are for services like waste collection or general municipal obligations. Missing even a single payment can result in late fees, wage garnishments, or other serious financial consequences.
Can RITA Garnish Your Wages?
One of the most common questions people ask is whether RITA can garnish wages. The answer is yes, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Before garnishing wages, RITA or the municipality must first obtain a court judgment. This judgment confirms that the debt is valid and gives RITA the legal authority to garnish wages, seize bank accounts, or place liens on your property. This is why it’s critical to address your RITA taxes before they escalate to this level.
Will You Go to Jail for Not Paying RITA?
While RITA can take severe actions like wage garnishment, one thing you do NOT have to worry about is going to jail. RITA tax issues are civil matters, not criminal offenses. That means no one is going to issue a warrant for your arrest for failing to pay your local taxes. However, ignoring your RITA tax obligations can lead to more significant financial strain, and it’s much better to resolve the issue sooner rather than later.
How to Resolve Your RITA Tax Issues
At Ken-Mar Tax, we specialize in helping individuals and businesses resolve local tax issues, including those involving RITA. Our team has extensive experience working with RITA and other local tax agencies, like the Central Collection Agency (CCA), to negotiate payment plans and reduce penalties for our clients.
Whether you’ve missed a few payments or haven’t filed local taxes in years, we can help. Our experts will review your local tax liability, file any necessary back taxes, and work with RITA to establish a manageable payment plan. We’re on the phone with local taxing authorities almost daily, which allows us to streamline the process and secure the best outcome for our clients.
Payment Plans and Penalty Relief
If you’re worried about how to pay off your RITA debt, don’t panic. Ken-Mar Tax can help you set up a payment plan to spread the cost over time, making it easier to handle. We also work to reduce back-tax liabilities and request waivers for penalties whenever possible. Our goal is to minimize the financial impact on you and give you peace of mind.
Contact Ken-Mar Tax for RITA Tax Relief
If you’re facing challenges with unpaid RITA taxes, don’t wait until the situation gets worse. Ken-Mar Tax is here to provide you with local tax relief. Our team has years of experience working with RITA, CCA, and local municipalities, helping clients resolve back taxes efficiently and effectively.
Contact us today at (440) 777-2207 or fill out our Contact Us form for a free consultation. Let us help you get back on track and avoid further penalties.
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Small Business Tax Services
As an expert in small business tax services and tax consulting Ken-Mar Tax eats, sleeps and breathes small business tax strategies. Being an enrolled agent allows founder, Ken Weinberg, to represent you to the IRS - something only a CPA, tax attorney and Enrolled Agent can do. EAs are the only federally licensed tax practitioners who specialize in taxation and also have unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. It also means he is continuously being updated on the new IRS tax codes and taking classes from the IRS that provide guidance on how to file returns so that they are not "flagged."
When you get your taxes prepared by Ken Mar Tax you also have the option to purchase the Tax Audit Protection Plan to avoid the extra costs of paying for audit representation. If you are audited by the IRS, State of Ohio or local taxing authorities, Ken-Mar Tax will meet with the taxing authorities on your behalf to negotiate a settlement for you. The fee covers all costs up to the Appeals level, including up to 15 hours of correspondence with the auditing party – either the IRS, State of Ohio or locality.
