My first experience with the Regional Income Tax Agency came with my first job. For the uninitiated, RITA is the local tax collection body for Cleveland area cities. The way they operate is just terrible. Direct withdrawal from paychecks is left up to the cities, and most of them never instituted the process. That means its left up to RITA to collect the amount in total. The bad part is how RITA estimates your yearly taxes, regardless of if you keep the same job or not, and then sends you and estimated bill. All this before the end of the year. Then it’s up to the individual to call RITA, inform them of the correct income level, and then either pay the whole bill or set up payments. It’s a tremendous hassle. And now that I live in northern Summit county, RITA is an experience that no longer bothers me. That said, I’m not sure Lakewood will do a better job at collecting their taxes.
Next year, Lakewood will drop out of the area’s largest income tax collection agency to go independent.
City officials say that leaving the Regional Income Tax Agency will save money in the long run and catch more tax cheats.
They acknowledge, however, that independently collecting taxes will be more costly in the next few years. The city must buy computer software and hire as many as five more workers to process 31,000 annual tax returns.
Overall, the taxes go towards important city services. However, until they institute a direct withdrawal method from paychecks, it will continue to be a real pain.