Income Tax Agency To Administer Its Municipal Tax

Q: In 2000 I moved from Lakewood, Ohio, to New York; by 2001 I had no more financial affairs in Ohio. Lakewood contracts with the Regional Income Tax Agency to administer its municipal tax. Because RITA ignored my letters of explanation, I received a subpoena duces tecum from Lakewood, via ordinary first-class mail, ordering me to bring all records of my 2001 income subject to municipal income tax. (Yes, I filed my 2000 municipal tax return on time.) This is really a hypothetical, because I phoned the issuing office and they said they'd take care of it, but was that subpoena even legal? They have no proof of delivery; suppose I had simply ignored it? And a related question: if it is legal, and if I had ignored it, is there anything they could have done about it since I have no assets in Ohio and don't live there?

A: -I am not a lawyer, but -- doesn't a subpoena duces tecum require you to SEND the records, not to BRING the records. There is a considerable difference there. Also, the paragraph I cut suggested that you've been in contact with them, and hence have admitted receiving the subpoena. In some cases, improper service can still be considered "service" if there was actual service. Furthermore, it sounds as if you have no 2001 income subject to the municipal income tax, so you've already satisfied the subpoena. -This sounds like a routine request. You filed a 2000 municipal tax return in 2001, but you didn't file a 2001 tax return in 2002. So now they are asking you to prove that you didn't actually need to file one. I don't know what they would have done if you had failed to respond to the first request. Presumably they would send you more letters, and eventually they would have arranged to hire

someone in your area to serve you in person. -Depends in part on what Ohio law is and in part on what's constitutional. In my view, if they actually sue you for something that you supposedly did or didn't do in Ohio, they might be able to permissibly sue you and serve you out of state (requiring a return receipt, which most likely must be signed by you personally) to bring you within the jurisdiction of the court. If they haven't done that, my guess is that they can't just serve a subpoena on you out of state (even if they serve you personally) without getting an order from a NY court allowing them to do so, because they don't have any jurisdiction outside of Ohio.