Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) An obligor is
subject to federal income tax refund offset when the following conditions have
been met:
(1) The federal income tax refund
offset submission criteria have been met;
(2) The federal office of child support
enforcement (OCSE) has certified that the obligor is eligible for federal
income tax refund offset; and
(3)
The internal revenue service has notified the bureau of fiscal service (BFS)
that the obligor will receive a federal income tax refund.
(B) BFS will satisfy submitted debts in the
following priority:
(1) Federal tax
debts;
(2) Assigned and unassigned
child support debts;
(3) Other
federal debts; and
(4) State tax
debts.
(C) The federal
income tax refund offset process.
(1) BFS
sends an offset notice to the obligor after FMS has processed the offset but
before the office of child support (OCS) within the Ohio department of job and
family services has been notified of the offset. BFS will also send a notice to
a joint federal taxpayer who filed taxes jointly with the obligor, advising the
joint federal taxpayer of the steps required to protect the share of the tax
refund that may be payable to the joint federal taxpayer.
(2) When the obligor cannot be located, the
federal tax refund offset will be reversed by BFS.
(3) BFS notifies OCSE on a weekly basis of
offsets and adjustments that occur.
(4) OCSE issues to OCS the reports that
include obligors for whom offsets and adjustments have occurred and the amounts
of those offsets and adjustments. These reports are described in paragraph
(C)(1) of rule 5101:12-50-32.8 of the Administrative Code.
(5) BFS sends the offset amounts to the Ohio
office of the treasurer.
(6) The
Ohio office of the treasurer notifies the office of fiscal and monitoring
services (OFMS) within the Ohio department of job and family services of
receipt of the offset amounts.
(7)
OFMS then transfers the offset amounts, together with the amount of any fees
and adjustments to cover one hundred per cent of the offset amount, to the Ohio
child support payment central (CSPC) for disbursement.
(8) CSPC processes the offset amount received
to the appropriate order in the support enforcement tracking system
(SETS).
(D) Offset
amounts shall be considered collections in the month in which they are received
and applied to any arrears of the obligor that met the offset
criteria.
(E) When a state has
CSENet collection (COL) transaction capability with Ohio, the COL P CITAX
transaction will be automatically sent to the state by SETS whenever an offset
collection is received.
(F) If the
state does not have CSENet COL transaction capability with Ohio, or the child
support enforcement agency (CSEA) determines that the transaction was not sent,
the CSEA shall send the OMB 0970-0085, "Transmittal #3 - Request for
Assistance/Discovery," to any other state that is involved in the enforcement
of the intergovernmental case no later than three business days from the
receipt of an offset amount in an intergovernmental case. The OMB 0970-0085
notifies the other state of the receipt of the offset amount.
