The commercial activity tax (CAT) is an annual tax imposed on retailers, service providers, manufacturers, and other types of businesses for the privilege of doing business in Ohio.

Businesses with Ohio taxable gross receipts of $150,000 or more per calendar year must register for the CAT, file all the applicable returns, and make all corresponding payments.

Taxpayers affected by the CAT should pay close attention to this tax’s changes effective in 2013; a taxpayer that pays the CAT on a quarterly basis shall apply the annual exclusion of $1 million of taxable gross receipts to the first quarter of the calendar year. Any unused portion of the exclusion amount may be carried forward to subsequent quarters within the same calendar year. Taxpayers may not carry forward any used exclusion amount to the following calendar year (this also applies to any unused exclusion amount from calendar year 2012). 

Under prior law, a quarterly taxpayer would exclude up to $250,000 of taxable gross receipts on each of the four quarterly returns in a calendar year and could carry forward any unused exclusion amount for three calendar quarters.