Ohio Worker's Compensation

To Start: Having a business in Ohio requires you to obtain Worker’s Compensation insurance for your employees and possibly your subcontractors. The application, payments and returns are all filed through the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (OBWC) website at https://www.bwc.ohio.gov.

For new employers an application form U-3 requires a $120 non-refundable application fee. Based on your estimated payroll for the following 12 months and the type of work that your employees do (manual number), OBWC will set your annual fee. It is very important that you are specific in the type of work being done and the equipment being used to accurately assign the manual numbers and rates. 

Reporting & Paying: Depending on the amount set for your annual fee, you will either need to pay the entire amount up front or it will be broken down into 6 equal payments. You can make these payments online or pay the installments through the mail. Once a year, you can elect to make your 6 payments monthly, quarterly or annually. BWC runs on a fiscal year of July 1- June 30. A true-up report is due annually on August 15 and is required to be filed on their website reporting the actual payroll for the prior fiscal year. Depending on the actual versus the estimated, either an overpayment will be refunded or a balance will be due. If you have a significant increase in your payroll, you may want to increase your payments during the year so that you don’t owe a large sum with the true up.

Rebates: In 2018 OBWC is issuing rebates for the 2016-2017 fiscal year of 85% of the premiums paid for that year. Checks were mailed out in July. Rebates have also been issued in 3 of the past 4 years.

Lowering your rates:  There are various methods to help lower your rates including: belonging to a group, participating in safety programs, i.e. Policy Activity Rebate (PAR) and training through Better You, Better Ohio! as well as other rating programs. Various rules apply to these, including claim history and some may not be combined.

Let us help answer any of your questions about Workers’ Compensation or other tax matters.

Thank you for all of your questions, comments and suggestions for future topics. As always, they are much appreciated. We may be reached in Dayton at 937-436-3133 and in Xenia at 937-372-3504. Or visit our website.  

This week's author – Linda J. Johannes, CPA