State economists to inform Oregonians regarding amount of tax kicker.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
State economists to inform Oregonians regarding amount of tax kicker.
A refund is expected, albeit less than what was originally reported in May.
“It’s pretty certain that it will be smaller,” said Paul Warner, the state’s legislative revenue officer. “The question now is exactly what the amount will be. It’s never a foregone conclusion until the day it comes in the door.”
The kicker is an only-in-Oregon tax rebate triggered when state tax revenues, minus corporate income taxes, come in more than 2 percent higher than state economists forecast at the start of the two-year budget cycle.
When that happens, the state must return the extra money to taxpayers. Voters approved the kicker in 1980 and made it harder to change in 2000 by putting it in the state constitution.
(SOURCE: OregonLive.com)
Taxpayers will receive a credit instead of checks this year. The cost of mailing checks was about $1 million, according to the Portland Tribune.
After the May forecast, Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, introduced a bill (HB 3555) to allow lawmakers to keep the kicker amount, half of it for education and the other half for a budget reserve. But the bill would have required two-thirds majorities for passage, and it never got a hearing in committee.
Based on 2013 tax liability, Oregon taxpayers with a median adjusted gross income of between $30,000 and $35,000 — half above that range and half below — would get a rebate of $144 against their 2015 tax bills due in 2016.
(SOURCE: Portland Tribune)
RELATED NEWS: Bill introduced to cancel tax kicker; State budget forecast to yield kicker
