A Guide to TriMet and Lane Transit Self-employment Taxes
Transit District Taxes The Oregon Department of Revenue (DOR) is responsible for collecting Tri-County Metropolitan (TriMet) Transportation District and Lane Transit District (LTD) self-employment taxes. This tax is applied to the self-employment earnings of taxpayers doing business, or providing services within the transit districts.
Who must file and pay?
Individuals—Anyone who has self-employment earnings from business or service activities carried on in the TriMet or LTD districts may be subject to this tax. This includes self-employed individuals, sole proprietors, independent contractors, and real estate salespeople.
Partnerships—Partnerships are not subject to the tax, but the partnership may choose to file one transit self-employment tax return and pay the tax for all of its individual members.
Exemptions—The following are not subject to this tax:
C and S corporation distributions.
Ministers.
Insurance agents—applies only to insurance-related income.
How do we determine self-employment income?
Self-employment earnings are those reported on your individual federal Schedule SE, line 3, as defined in IRC € 1402. When determining the amount of your self-employment earnings subject to the transit self-employment tax, one $400 exclusion is allowed per taxpayer no matter how many businesses an individual may have.
If a taxpayer has more than one business included on federal Schedule SE, only include those businesses from line 3 of your federal Schedule SE that have net earnings. Do not use a business with a net loss to offset a business with net earnings.
Use the ZIP code list below as a guideline to help determine if you have self-employment earnings in the Portland Metropolitan area, which includes parts of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties. Some ZIP codes may not coincide with the district boundary maps. You may call the TriMet District at 503-962-6466 for specific boundary questions.
Use the ZIP code list below as a guideline to help determine if you have self-employment earnings in the Eugene-Springfield urban and rural areas served by LTD. Some ZIP codes may not coincide with the district boundary maps. You may call the LTD District at 541-682-6100 or e-mail ltd@ltd.org for specific boundary questions.
All employers who pay wages for services performed in these districts must pay a transit payroll tax. This transit tax is imposed directly on the employer, who must register and file with Department of Revenue.
