Can someone help me understand something about school district tax? In boxes19 and 20 there are two numbers, which exactly is local and which is school?

[mesquitebean]

What state and what city?

Box 19 and 20 of "what??"  We don't know what you're looking at.

What tax year are you referring to?

If you provide more info, someone familiar with your state/city may be able to help you.

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

Box 19 (of your W-2) is the amount of local income tax withheld. Box 20 identifies the local taxing entity (either a school district or a municipality) for which the tax was withheld.

If there is a 4 digit number in box 20; then it is, almost certainly, the school district. 

Ohio employers are only required to withhold for the work city, although many will voluntarily withhold for the resident city  or resident school district, as well.   You may have to ask your employer who got your local withholding.

If there are two numbers in box 19, then it appears you had  withholding for two taxing entities.  Box 20 would identify the entities.  It should not be two school districts (you do not pay tax to the work location school district, but you do have to pay to the work location city, as well as resident city).

[Jas17]

Ohio and for a W2

and 2016 for the year.

Its just weird because only the state is saying I didn’t do it and it took over two years for them to get ahold of me.

[Hal_Al]

The Ohio School District Income tax (SDIT) is administered by the Ohio dept of taxation (ODT), the same people that do the state income tax.  So, if ODT is contacting you about 'local" income tax, it's SDIT, not city tax.

There are 2 state wide agencies that help Ohio Cities collect City Income taxes. One is CCA (Central Collection Agency) and the other, larger one, is RITA (Regional Income Tax Agency). There is a pull down list of cities, in Turbo Tax(TT), for both City Tax Forms (CCA) & RITA. TurboTax can only do RITA & CCA cities.  But many  Ohio cities use neither agency. These cities design their own forms and require you to use them.  You can get paper copies from the individual city. Most are available at the city’s web site. Many cities will prepare the tax return for you, but you have to go to city hall in person. Some may have on line filing (try the city web site).

[Hal_Al]

It's not unusual for ODT to take 2 years to catch you for not filing a SDIT return. There's another, but unlikely, possibility: your employer  mistakenly withheld SDIT for a district you did not live in and you may be entitled to a refund.  To verify that you live(d) in a school district (or city) with an income tax enter your address at:

http://www.tax.ohio.gov/Individual/LocalTaxInformation.aspx