Web Privacy, Security and Links to Other Sites Policy

This page outlines information that is collected from users of tax.ohio.gov and how we safeguard it.

Privacy and Ohio Department of Taxation Sites

The Department has taken many steps to ensure your personal information is protected. You may freely visit this website without ever revealing any personal information about yourself.

However, for certain activities — such as electronic tax filing or using the "Contact Us" section of our website — we may ask you to provide certain personal information about yourself. This information requested may include your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and/or other personal identifying information such as federal employer identification number, Ohio state tax account number and/or social security number. It is completely voluntary for you to provide this information. However, this information is used to process your return promptly and accurately or to answer specific questions regarding refunds, bills and/or assessments. It will be used only for these purposes. Our secure pages utilize a minimum of 128-bit SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption to provide an appropriate safeguard for protecting your personal information. 

We will use the personal information that you voluntarily provide to us to correspond with you, process an online request for information (for example, the status of your tax refund), or some similar action authorized by yourself.

Unless required to do so by law, we will not distribute your personal information to anyone. However, in order to complete credit card payment transactions, it is necessary for the Ohio Department of Taxation to share credit card-related information with our payment processor.

The Federal Privacy Act of 1974 requires us to inform you when it is mandatory that you provide your Social Security number to us. In certain situations — such as when filing a tax return electronically on this Website — we require you to provide us with a Social Security number. Ohio Revised Code sections 5703.05, 5703.057 and 5747.08 authorize us to request this information. We need your Social Security number to properly administer Ohio's taxes. Your failure to supply any information on a tax form prescribed by the tax commissioner may result in the imposition of penalties for failing to file a complete tax return. 

In order to generate usage statistics to help us improve our Website, we automatically collect statistical information on web traffic to our pages.  

Safeguarding Your Personal Information

The Ohio Department of Taxation is serious about preserving the integrity of the information and systems that we maintain. As such, we have instituted safeguards for all information systems under our control so that information will not be lost, misused or altered.

We employ software programs to monitor traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload, change, or otherwise cause damage to our information or website. In the event of authorized law enforcement investigations and pursuant to any required legal process, information from these sources may be used to help identify an individual. We shall not attempt to identify an individual using this site unless that individual is suspected of illegal behavior against this site.

Protecting your privacy and your information is a top priority. We have taken careful measures to secure both your information and our physical premises. We exercise great care in providing secure transmission of your information from your personal computer to our servers. Our secure server software encrypts information, ensuring that all Internet transactions remain private (unless sent by an unsecured means, such as e-mail).

Steps You Can Take

If you have any questions regarding an email that you receive from the Ohio Department of Taxation, please contact us to verify the validity of the email.

Links to Other Sites

Links to external sites are provided for your convenience. The Ohio Department of Taxation is not responsible for their content, privacy measures, or security controls. 

More information

If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact the Communications Office at (614) 466-2166 or by e-mail at the following address: privacy@tax.state.oh.us.