Joel Dollarhide’s complaint centers on an Ohio Department of Job and Family Services audit of a client’s reported employee wages in 2007.

The audit contends the client under-reported wages that year by $19,257:
• $5,641 in the first quarter
• $11,642 in the third quarter
• $1,974 in the fourth quarter

Multiply the total by Ohio’s 0.4 percent contribution rate for unemployment tax and the client appeared to owe a little more than $77 in additional contributions for the year.  The department also levied $23.90 in interest based on the audit figures.

Dollarhide has been pressing the ODJFS for details – by employee name – of the wages the department says were under-reported for each quarter.

“I have reviewed the payroll reports for these periods and can not determine how you arrived at the (under-reported) wages,” he writes in a June 18 letter to the compliance auditor.

To date, he hasn’t received the data.

If the audit results would stand, his client could also lose a state credit deductible from federal taxes, Dollarhide said, adding the credit would be around $500.

In addition, the Internal Revenue Service would levy interest and penalties and Dollarhide’s accounting firm could be held liable for the client’s losses.

Even though the ODJFS has decided to conduct a new audit of his client, Dollarhide says he wants to know why the employee specific information is being withheld.

“There is a principle here,” he said.

He estimates he has between $3,000 and $4,000 worth of unbillable hours spent trying to resolve the matter.

His last recourse, he said, is to file a civil lawsuit to recover his expenses as well as punitive damages.

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