On August 26th, state economists announced that taxpayers will be getting a kicker rebate for the first time in eight years. This is Oregon’s unique system of refunding taxes paid when general fund revenue exceeds 2% of projections. For this period, revenue exceeded estimates by $111 million so folks who paid taxes in 2014 will be seeing a credit on their 2015 tax returns.
The credit looks to be about 5.8% of individuals’ “Total Tax Before Credits” (line 31 on the Oregon form 40). To figure out what your kicker credit will look like, the Oregonian has set up a webpage to help calculate 5.8% or estimate if you don’t have access to your tax return.
Although the state used to send out checks, the cost of mailing was deemed prohibitively high, so the 2011 legislature changed the program to a refundable tax credit.
