Consumer Investigator Danielle Serino has explained why many of us get tax bills every year from RITA, or a company called the CCA.
They're two businesses hired by municipalities across Ohio to collect local taxes, and it's something only a handful of states do.
Let's just get real. We all hate taxes, especially Ohio's residence taxes.
And we get angrier when we don't know why we're paying them?
You just paid?” Danielle asked a couple from Geauga County.
Because if I didn't, they’d come after you. forget it," another resident said.
And what a surprise for those who haven't lived here very long
"Two months,” an East side resident responded.
“Oh he's another one that's gonna get hit," Danielle said.
Despite taxing them, very few cities like Mentor, tell their residents they need the taxes for things like emergency services, paving roads and snow plowing.
Most find out when they get a bill from the Regional Income Tax Agency, or Central Collection Agency whom they hire to collect their taxes.
In fact when we called Cleveland City Hall, which oversees the CCA, the person we spoke with didn't even know what it was.
"Central Collection Agency. The people who handle your taxes,” Danielle said.
And there are dozens of taxpayer complaints about RITA and the CCA, like from one resident who said a RITA employee told her she was paid in full. But three years later got a summons saying she owed thousands in back taxes.
Another woman said she hired a lawyer, after getting a ten year old tax bill, which was wrong
And a Clevelander says he got a bill for three years of back taxes because Turbo Tax didn't support CCA filers.
"Is somebody dropping the ball here?" Danielle asked Bratenahl Mayor John Licastro.
Licastro, who also headed two local mayor's organizations, said it's on the residents to educate themselves.
“Most communities that do employ RITA or CCA are happy with their overall performance, he said.
I would suggest you contact RITA or CCA to see what the disconnect was," he told Danielle
Which is exactly what we did.
“Please excuse my bluntness, but why has it been such a hot mess, actually trying to collect these taxes?" Danielle asked Don Smith, Executive Director of RITA.
She grilled him for nearly an hour, on everything from misplacing the personal information for fifty thousand taxpayers, to which he responded,
“We’ve never received word any taxpayer was compromised"
Danielle asked him about the website going down two days before tax day. He replied, “It was a one time deal. I can tell you now, our website capacity is multiple times more robust than it was at that time.”
Then there were the accusations its employees don't know what they're doing, to which he responded "You have to spend at least a year with the agency before we would have you calculating tax returns for others. So they are not wet behind the ears."
He acknowledged the agency could always improve.
And while residents will probably always hate them, Smith points out
"If we were doing as poor as some have said, they why would word of mouth be that the best place is RITA?"
Now Danielle asked the Bratenahl Mayor if using CCA and RITA to collect taxes was politically motivated.
That’s because the State's been pushing to collect them instead, which means municipalities could lose out on money. He said no. The CCA, by the way, never responded to our interview request.