In the heading area at the top of Ohio Form IT-1040 is the field "Ohio county". Per the return instructions, for full-year and part-year residents you are to enter the first four letters of the county in which the taxpayer lived for most of the tax year, while for nonresidents you are instructed to leave this field blank.
The Ohio Department of Taxation requires tax preparation software to include a 2D barcode at the bottom of the first page of Form IT-1040, and the 4-letter county name is one of the elements in the barcode. Since it can't be blank in the barcode, the DOT has instructed us to use FRAN as the county for nonresidents. Thus, FRAN also prints on the nonresident IT-1040 as the county.
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