April OSCPA Town Hall: Takeaways from Tax Season

By Jessica Barboza, OSCPA marketing and communications intern   

Featuring Policy Director Tim Lynch and David Peck, Tax Program Administrator for the Individual and School District Income Tax Division and the Customer Care Center at the Ohio Department of Taxation (ODT), the April 24 OSCPA Town Hall offered a recap of the 2025 tax filing season and insights into what’s ahead. 

ODT celebrated another successful year of their new OH|Tax eServices platform. Phase 1 launched in September 2023 to help streamline the filing process for taxpayers and preparers. 

“This was probably, in my 20-plus years here at Taxation, the best filing season that we've had,” Peck said. 

This filing season, ODT: 

• Processed 5.9 million returns through the filing deadline, leading to $1.88 billion of refunds going out. 
• Answered around 70,000 phone calls, with the average hold time being just over 15 minutes. 

“We love to see the taxpayer’s face when they submitted something at 5:36pm on April 15th, and, not only did they get the automated response, but within a couple minutes, they were getting the email back with their question answered,” Peck said. “The team here at Taxation did an amazing job of being able to serve the taxpayers as well as the preparer community.” 

Outreach 

ODT has expanded personal income tax outreach efforts, Peck said, having visited libraries, the Ohio State Fair and the Ohio Farm Science Review. 

“Sometimes tax filing can be frustrating, can be challenging, but it's good that we're getting out there to show people in the community, ‘Hey, Taxation is here. We're here to help you and assist in any way to help you meet your filing obligations,’” Peck said. 

Additionally, ODT’s outreach team has been working with Central Ohio high schools to pilot financial literacy and entrepreneurship classes.  

“We can present to them more than a lecture, have a conversation with them about the businesses they’re looking to start, and how they go about filing and registering with the Secretary of State, and then registering with our business tax divisions depending on what they’re selling,” Lynch said. 

Ultimately, the team aims to make sure students are not afraid to approach the department and seek help if they need it, Lynch said. 

Ohio legislation 

Looking at the pending budget bill, the ODT is aiming to:  

• Restore the Child Tax Credit, an up-to-$1,000 refundable tax credit for each child under the age of seven, designed to assist low- and moderate-income families in Ohio. 
• Support the passing of electronic filing for utility companies (e.g. public utility, personal property, public utility and MCF taxes) that are still currently required to file by paper. 
• Support the passing of electronic refund notices, giving taxpayers the choice to opt for electronic notifications over mail notices. 
• Change policy to ensure that the tax commissioner will not have to wait for the taxpayer to request a penalty abatement before granting it, allowing the commissioner to proactively issue an abatement to a penalty. 

Technology is reshaping the landscape 

In the second half of the Town Hall, OSCPA President & CEO Laura A. Hay, CPA, CAE, discussed the ways in which new technologies are transforming the accounting landscape. With clients expecting faster, more personalized insights; regulators increasing their demands for transparency and real-time reporting; and data exponentially increasing, real-time data-driven decisions are essential, Hay said. 

“Technology helps us harness data to turn raw numbers into actionable intelligence, which are the insights that businesses are expecting from CPAs” Hay said. “Business leaders aren't willing to wait weeks for reports any longer. They want real-time dashboards, KPIs and answers now. That means our systems and our skill sets need to catch up to that pace.” 

A few examples of technologies driving this transformation:  

• Cloud computing has made collaboration and scalability easier. 
• AI and machine learning are helping us identify patterns that we couldn't see before. 
• Automation is taking over repetitive tasks. 
• Blockchain has the potential to enhance transparency and trust. 
• Advanced analytics give us predictive power. 

Protecting client data and maintaining trust remains front and center, meaning that each driver represents both an opportunity and a challenge, Hay said. Technologies must be adopted thoughtfully and strategically as a profession. 

What can leaders do now? 

They can start by asking the tough questions: 

• What is the state of our digital maturity? 
• What does a digital roadmap look like that aligns with our goals?
•  What is the state of our talent strategy? 
• What is our culture and does its responsiveness to change management look like? 
• How can we invest in appropriate learning for ourselves and our teams? 

“The pace of change is accelerating, not slowing, and the best time to start adapting is today,” Hay said. 

 Pathways Legislation 

Nationwide pathways legislation is moving quickly.   

A new 2025 Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA) exposure draft has been created to help remaining states cross the finish line, Hay said. This draft supports the passing two key pathways: 

• A bachelor's degree, two years of work experience, the CPA examination and an accounting concentration of coursework 
• A master's degree, one year of experience, the CPA examination and an accounting concentration of coursework 

The UAA draft also introduces a concept called automatic mobility, meaning that if a CPA has a license in good standing in one state, they are able to practice in another state, provided that they have met certain minimum guardrails, Hay said. The minimum guardrails in Ohio's automobility legislation are having a bachelor's degree, an accounting concentration of coursework and having passed the CPA exam. 

Be sure to join us for our next Town Hall on May 15.