Apportionment for Outside City Limits

Welcome to the Sandy business community.  Sandy’s public transit system is supported by a business tax per Municipal Code Chapter 5.05. Transit service information, the ordinance and payroll tax form (located at the bottom of the page) are available.

The business transit tax is assessed on all businesses located in the city and any business that transacts business in the city.  It is an employer-paid tax.  The tax is based on all forms of taxable compensation, i.e. wages, bonuses, etc. for corporations, and for self-employed, all taxable wages and/or net earnings generated by business activity in Sandy is subject to the tax.

All businesses or contractors doing business in Sandy are responsible to apportion the amount of taxes due to the City of Sandy based on the work done in the City.  In order to not be taxed twice on the same wage or net earnings, you reduce your subject wage and/or net earnings due to any other transit agency by the amount of wages and/or net earnings reported and paid to the City of Sandy in a given period.

Self-employed business owners and partnerships must file and remit payment on net earnings by the same date the federal tax is due, April 15th of the year following the year for which you are reporting.  If your business is a sole proprietorship or partnership and you have employees, you will be assessed both quarterly for your payroll and annually for your net earnings as they are reflected on the Federal 1040 Form or 1065 Form.

If you have a corporation, you must file and remit payment quarterly on your business payroll and all forms of compensation (including officers) attributable to business transacted in the City of Sandy.  Payroll tax remittance is due by the end of the month following the close of the quarter.  Quarters are determined from the first of the year, i.e. January-March; April-June; July-September; October-December.

For your convenience, some highlights of the ordinance are:

• The tax rate is 0.0060, or six-tenths of one percent of payroll.
• The City of Sandy collects and administers its payroll tax directly.
• Payroll taxes for each quarter are due by the end of the month following the tax quarter.
• Net earnings for sole-proprietors and partnerships are due by April 15th of the following year.
• Many businesses have subcontractors or commissioned agents.  Please advise all such associates of their payroll or personal self-employment tax responsibility; all taxable wages earned in the City or on projects transacted in the City are subject to this tax. Additional copies of forms and ordinances are available at the office or by fax.
• Late payments are immediately subject to a 10% penalty.
• A second penalty of 15% is assessed when the payment is more than 30 days late.
• Interest of 1.5 % per month will be levied.
• If you are filing for a federal extension you must also contact the City transit department; the tax is still due.  The tax form allows you to indicate you are paying based on an estimate.
• The apportionment can be based on a percent of your total wages or net earnings by agreement with the district.