Where is my NC income tax refund?

By: By Mark Johnson | McClatchy Tribune Wire Service
Published: March 06, 2009

N.C. North Carolina has delayed sending out state income tax refund checks so state officials can juggle the cashflow needed to give taxpayers back their money.

Secretary of Revenue Ken Lay described the problem as a temporary backlog, because the department is having to tap special accounts to pay refunds, he said.

"Everyone who is due a refund will get a refund," Lay said in a prepared statement, saying he expects progress in the coming weeks.

The disclosure of the refund logjam this week has angered some taxpayers who called the Revenue Department in recent weeks and were told that there were no delays, that checks were taking several weeks to process.

"Don't lie, and that's what I felt like they've done," said James Stephenson, who works for a specialty contractor in North Charlotte and was told in two recent phone calls that refunds were now taking four to six weeks. "You call into the state and they tell you one thing and then their boss says, 'We have the money, we're just slow paying it out.' "

North Carolina is facing its worst budget crisis in decades, and revenues, the money that pays for government's day-to-day operations, are running nearly $300 million behind last year's figures.

Lawmakers are attempting to patch a $2 billion hole in the current budget that ends June 30 and an even larger gap expected in the spending plan they have to write for next year.

Gov. Beverly Perdue last week siphoned $300 million from special funds, such as money for school textbooks and clean water management, to make sure the state has enough money to pay the bills. She is also contemplating using lottery money to steady the state's finances.

Stephenson, who lives in Ft. Mill, S.C., but pays N.C. tax because of his job, has filed electronically for nearly a decade and the refund has been deposited in his account in less than two weeks. He filed on Feb. 7 and still doesn't have his money. It's not pinching his own finances, but he knows others don't have as much financial cushion.

"With the economy," Stephenson said, "there are people trying to get their refund to pay bills and keep their head above water."

Where is my NC income tax refund?

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