Ohio estate tax
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The state of Ohio imposes an estate tax on the transfer of assets from resident decedents (or on Ohio assets of nonresidents) of 7% on amounts over $500,000. Below that exemption amount, lower rates are applied, but due to a tax credit, generally no estate worth less than several hundred thousand dollars pays any state estate taxes. Recently, another inheritance related tax, called the Ohio additional estate tax, was eliminated.
Though the state enforces the tax (through its administrative officers in the counties) and receives the tax, it retains only 20% of the tax and passes the rest on to the townships or municipalities associated with the resident decedent or the resident decedent's real property. The biggest municipal beneficiaries of the tax have been the cities where Ohio's wealthy live, and on a per capita basis, the extremely wealthy villages and suburbs surrounding Cleveland and Cincinnati, and to a lesser extent, Columbus. Of the three largest cities, Cleveland and Cincinnati have a higher per capita receipt of estate tax revenue than does Columbus; while all three cities have similar income levels, the former cities have a greater concentration of created or inherited wealth historically, probably because Columbus has been historically smaller but with high recent growth rates).
Therefore, though the tax has been considered a progressive tax on inherited Ohio fortunes, most of the revenue benefits have accrued to villages and cities with relatively higher per capita incomes and net worths and therefore the tax is administratively a regressive tax.
An attempt to end the Ohio estate tax was blocked in 2001 when state revenues began to drop and intense lobbying from a league of suburban municipalities lobbied for a continuation of the tax.
