All rebates out by next month

Owing it to the automation of the Northern Marianas tax system which fast-tracks processing of all revenue and duty transactions, the Department of Finance yesterday assured that all rebate and refund checks should be mailed out before the end of next month.

However, acting Revenue and Taxation Director Dora S. Taitingfong said the anticipated release of approximately 37,000 rebate and refund checks by August will be realized if the finance department system would not encounter software-related difficulties.

Finance Secretary Lucy Nielsen said the Revenue and Taxation Division is already processing the third batch of rebates and refunds, which are expected to be mailed out and reach taxpayers’ post office boxes on Friday.

Ms. Nielsen said the Division has already processed and released the rebate and refund checks of around 17,000 taxpayers since the finance department started mailing out the first batch last July 14, 2000.

During the weekend of July 14, the finance department released 9,213 rebates and refunds, while about 8,000 taxpayers received their checks last week.
“We are happy about the results of the improvements that we have put in place in processing rebates and refunds this year. It is instrumental in the early release of the checks,” said Ms. Nielsen.

In 1999, the CNMI government did not start issuing refunds until October and Ms. Nielsen blame this on the slowdown in the local economy due to the major decline in visitor arrivals into the islands.

Income tax rebates and refunds are processed and released on a first-in, first-out basis. DOF discourages pick up of rebate or refund checks, as well as asks taxpayers to stop inquiring about the status of their rebates until the filing date falls within the processing period.

Also, finance officials stressed that delinquent taxpayers are not likely to receive their refund checks until they settle their outstanding taxes due the Commonwealth government.

Those who have issued bounced checks may not also receive their refunds or rebates until they replace their bad checks with either cash or cashier’s check. The government received more than 38,000 tax returns this year.

Official government reports have previously unraveled that the special trust fund has dipped to $2 million from $31 million as of end-1997 when the Tenorio Administration assumed office in January 1998.

The government’s issuance of rebate checks was delayed for more than two months during the last tax year. In 1998, the first batch of rebates was released in August when it is normally mailed out during the month of May.