DOF moves deadline for tax filing

The Revenue and Taxation Division is giving Northern Marianas taxpayers more time to prepare their income tax returns by moving the deadline for the filing of the 1999 ITRs to April 17, 2000, the finance department disclosed yesterday.

The Department of Finance normally moves the last day of filing ITRs to the next working day when the deadline falls on a weekend. In this year’s case, April 15 fell on a Saturday.

Finance officials said taxation windows will be open until midnight of April 17 in order to accommodate more CNMI taxpayers who are anticipated to swamp the Revenues and Taxation Division office on the deadline date.

Finance Secretary Lucy Nielsen previously encouraged taxpayers to file their ITRs early since tax rebates are processed on a first-in first-out policy, which means early filers are more likely to receive their rebate checks first.

Ms. Nielsen also shrugged concerns raised on the delay in the issuance of the rebate checks. She stressed that the government is drawing near to completely replenishing the special rebate trust account which indicates on-time release of tax refunds.

As early as February this year, the government has already deposited at least $12 million in the special rebate trust account, which has dipped to $2 million from $31 million as of end-1997.

The $12 million which has been set aside by the government and deposited to the special trust account is almost 50 percent of the anticipated rebates and refunds during this tax year.

In 1999, the CNMI government issued about $30 million in total rebate and refund checks for both individual and corporate taxpayers for the 1998 tax year.

Ms. Nielsen said necessary preparations have been undertaken to make finance experts at the Revenue and Taxation Division ready to handle the anticipated volume of tax returns this year.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has consistently assured that all rebate checks will be out by October, or before the law-obliged deadline, adding that there is no way the government will fail to release the money since it is guaranteed by existing laws.

The governor said the government’s financial managers have been instructed to set aside available funds to the Special Rebate Trust Fund in order to make sure that the money will be available.

Also, the Department of Finance is now in the process of installing measures that will automate the processing of corporate rebate tax returns in order to avoid overpayments like what happened in Fiscal Year 1997 when 11 firms received their rebate checks twice.

Efforts to automate the manual processing of corporate rebates is part of the CNMI government’s plan to develop a new taxation system to replace the Commonwealth’s outdated revenue collection system.

At present, corporate rebates are processed manually, under which the Division of Revenue and Taxation prepares a payment voucher and submits a memorandum requesting for payment to the Director of Finance and Accounting.