Child tax credit checks out this week

Between today and Friday, a little over 3,000 child tax credit checks totaling some $4.6 million will be mailed out, just in time for this week’s opening of public schools—as what the administration had originally anticipated.

Acting governor Eloy S. Inos said yesterday that Department of Finance personnel have been preparing the first batch of checks since the weekend for them to be able to start mailing them out “as early as” today and “as late as Friday.”

“The checks will be out this week,” Inos told Saipan Tribune in a brief phone interview yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday was Labor Day holiday, and the post office was closed.

Inos said if the stamping, signing, and cutting of checks, among other things, are completed today, they will be immediately mailed out before the close of day.

But if the process takes longer, the checks could be mailed out Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

Inos, who oversees government finances, said the over 3,000 checks are part of the first batch. Besides this, there’s some 500 more certification application submitted to the U.S. Treasury.

“When these are mailed out—the over 3,000 and the additional 500—they’ll be about 75 percent of the total checks that will be mailed out this week. The others will be sent later,” he added.

If the checks come out today, it will coincide with the first day of classes for public schools.

The federal child tax credit is available to taxpayers who have a child under the age of 17. It is worth up to $1,000 per “qualifying” child.

In general, a “qualifying” child is any individual for whom the taxpayer can claim a dependency exemption and who is the taxpayer’s son or daughter, stepson or stepdaughter, brother or sister, or eligible foster child.

On Friday, the administration said the checks could miss the opening day of public schools but this changed later when the government received the transfer of funds from the federal government.

Many families rely on child tax credit checks for back-to-school shopping but because the checks couldn’t be received until this week, many of them had to dig deeper into their pockets.

Dindo Tupas, 42, said he and his wife spent over $100 yesterday at the National Office Supply on Beach Road for the school supplies of two of their three children attending Garapan Elementary School.

Tupas said he sold his old car for $400 to help buy his children’s school supplies.

“It would be a big help if the child tax credit checks are released this week,” the father of three said in an interview while he, his wife, and three children were shopping. He said he expects over $2,000 in child tax credit.

He showed the list of required school supplies he needed to buy for his children, including spiral-bound notebooks, crayons, markers, pencils, glue sticks, scissors, jacket (as the classroom could get cold), facial tissue, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, and a plastic cup for water.

Michelle Rasa, a social studies and language arts teacher at Saipan Southern High School and a mother of two public school students, said “it would be nice” to have the child tax credit checks this week.

“My students will be happy about that,” she said.

Rasa said high school teachers give the list of required school supplies on the first week of school, which is just in time for the government’s distribution of the child tax credit checks that parents rely on for back-to-school shopping.

Jun Azarcon, 44, also went shopping with his three children yesterday afternoon. He said he spent almost $50 for the school supplies of his children aged 7, 10, and 12.

“I’m not expecting a child tax credit check because of problems with my previous employer. But I will be applying for next year,” he said.

After the child tax credit checks are distributed, the administration hopes to start processing tax refund and rebate checks.

Inos said these checks would be released no later than December.

The CNMI government’s financial problems make it harder to release tax rebate and refund checks earlier than expected. The limited cash collections are used for priority programs such as the delivery of critical services. Payroll is almost always delayed for non-critical government employees since June 2010 also because of cash shortage.

A refund is for tax that has been overpaid or incorrectly paid, and is returned to the taxpayer. It is different from the rebate, which is for tax properly paid and is subsequently returned to the taxpayer under a rebate provision.