State to begin issuing $300 tax refunds

Hawaii taxpayers will begin to receive extra state tax refunds next week, Gov. David Ige said Tuesday.

About 100,000 taxpayers are expected to receive refunds of between $100 and $300 on or near Sept. 12.

Earlier this year, Ige signed a bill that would award the refunds to taxpayers because of a constitutional obligation for the state to either provide a rebate or an allocation to the state rainy day fund in the event of a budget surplus.

Under the bill’s terms, taxpayers who earn less than $100,000 per year, or couples who jointly earn less than $300,000 per year, will receive $300. Those who earn more will receive $100.

Ige said the rebate counts for each dependent claimed on a taxpayer’s return. Therefore, a single parent making less than $100,000 a year with two dependent children will receive $900.

Taxpayers who filed their returns by July 31 of this year and who requested a direct deposit refund will receive their rebates by Sept. 21. Refunds will be issued to the same bank account listed on a filer’s tax return.

Those who requested a paper refund may have to wait longer. Hawaii Department of Taxation Director Isaac Choy said that the state currently has only enough check stock for 50,000 checks, and will be issuing paper refunds in batches of 2,000 until a new shipment of stock arrives.

However, Ige and Choy said all paper refunds should be issued by the end of October.

Those who filed tax returns after July 31 will receive their rebates up to 10 weeks after their returns were accepted.

“As long as you’ve been here in the state for nine months, and you have filed your 2021 (Hawaii) income tax return, you do not need to do anything more,” Ige said.

Ige said the rebate is estimated to cost a total of $294 million, with about 600,000 taxpayers eligible to receive a refund. Of those eligible taxpayers, Choy said about 537,000 will receive a $300 refund.

Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.