© 2024
Virginia's Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Tax Refunds On the Way, But Not for All Virginians

Beginning late next week, Virginians should keep an eye on their mailboxes for a letter from the state. In it will be a check, a tax refund thanks to a budget move by state lawmakers earlier this year. 

 

Virginia’s Secretary of Finance says his department is on track to begin issuing checks by the middle of next week. It should take about four weeks for all 2.7 million checks to go out. 

“The check amounts will be $110 for adults. And $220 in cases of joint filers who are married,” explains Chris Wodicka, with the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis.

But not everyone will get a check. Those who didn’t pay state income taxes, probably because they qualified for credits of some sort, are excluded. Wodicka says that’s mostly low-income folks.

“Those families pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes…. sales taxes, and excise taxes, and fuel taxes,” Wodicka says. “It is excluding a group of people who could use the help.” 

Lawmakers made that decision earlier this year, when they realized the federal tax changes inadvertently gave some people a higher tax burden at the state level. They decided to give the money out, rather than spend it in the budget. 

In total Virginia is distributing about $430 million.

 
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Mallory Noe-Payne is a Radio IQ reporter based in Richmond.