Ohio Department of Taxation Individual Income Tax

Who Must File

Every Ohio resident and every part-year resident is subject to the Ohio income tax. Every nonresident having Ohio-sourced income must also file. Examples of Ohio-sourced income include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Wages earned in Ohio (note: see "Exception," below),
• Ohio lottery winnings,
• Income or gain from Ohio property,
• Income or gain from a sole proprietorship doing business in Ohio; and
• Income or gain from a pass-through entity doing business in Ohio.

Exception
A full-year nonresident living in a border state does not have to file if the nonresident's only Ohio-sourced income is wages received from an unrelated employer.

Generally, you do not have to file an Ohio return if you have no Ohio income tax withheld AND if...

• you are single, age 65 or older AND your federal adjusted gross income is less than or equal to $11,500 AND you have no Schedule A adjustments.
• you are married, filing jointly, age 65 or older AND your federal adjusted gross income is less than or equal to $13,000 AND you have no Schedule A adjustments.
• your only source of income is retirement income that is eligible for the retirement income credit (line 48) AND the credit is the same or larger than your tax before credits (line 6).
• your personal exemption and dependent exemption amount on line 4 is the same as or more than your Ohio adjusted gross income (line 3).

But don't forget: Last year, Congress authorized economic stimulus payments in 2008 to all taxpayers with at least $3,000 in qualifying income in tax year 2007, even if they don't normally file a federal or state return. Those eligible taxpayers who didn't file a federal return in 2008 and thus didn't receive a stimulus payment can, however, file a federal return in 2009 and still receive the stimulus.

• For more information regarding the federal economic stimulus payments, visit the IRS Economic Stimulus Payments Information Center.