Checks for Virginia’s one-time tax rebate roll out Monday

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Starting Monday, some Virginians may get a check in the mail or money deposited into their bank accounts if they’re eligible for this year’s one-time tax rebate.

The rebate is part of a bipartisan plan passed through the state budget in this year’s General Assembly session.

The Virginia Department of Taxation’s website lists more information regarding those rebate payments for eligible taxpayers. According to the website, not all taxpayers will qualify for this.

Officials said if you had a tax liability last year, you would receive up to $250 if you filed individually and up to $500 if you filed jointly.

Last week, Craig Burns, commissioner for the Virginia Department of Taxation, gave an update on these plans during a meeting.

During his presentation, Burns said they would hold a soft launch to distribute the rebates on Friday and Saturday.

“We will do a soft launch this Friday and Saturday,” said Burns during the meeting. “A few thousand direct deposits, a few thousand checks, just to make sure everything works before we go live.”

Virginia’s Tax Commissioner said the rebates would start to be issued on Monday, Sept. 19, for all returns filed by Sept. 5. The plan is to issue 250,000 refunds daily, Monday through Friday.

“Over the course of the program through the end of the year, we expect to issue about 3.2 million one-time tax rebates,” said Burns.

Officials anticipate sending roughly 1.3 million rebates through direct deposit and 1.9 million rebate checks.

For the checks, officials said the stub message would explain the rebates. Officials from the Department of Treasury also use its backup printing facility to expedite check printing and mailing.

The Virginia Department of Taxation lists the following as rebates that require a check:

• Tax returns with no banking information
• Tax returns for taxpayers who owed additional tax
• Direct deposits that were rejected due to closed bank accounts
• Partial rebates due to a taxpayer debt setoff

Through Oct. 10, the commissioner expects to issue about 2.9 million rebates.

Then from Oct. 11 through the end of the year, rebates will be issued weekly until complete for all eligible returns filed by Nov. 1.

For those who owe money to a state or local agency, the rebates will first be used to help pay those debts.

“If someone is eligible for a $250 rebate and they have $100 in court fines and fees, for example, that are in debt setoff, they will receive a check for $150, and the flap will explain what they need to do to contact the setoff agency,” said Burns during the meeting.

Officials are also anticipating an influx in phone calls.

“Because we did this in 2019 and based on the experience we had with that, we expect a high volume to our call center,” Burns said.

In 2019, the call center received more than 60,000 calls.

Virginia Tax’s call center is not staffed to service both rebate and “business-as-usual” calls. To mitigate this, Burns said they contracted with a third party to handle program calls.

On Sept. 19, taxpayers can check their rebate eligibility online. Taxpayers will learn their eligibility, the amount, if eligible, and when to expect the funds.

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