The state Department of Revenue Services says 120,000 taxpayers who have already filed their returns owe the state $12 million more because of a miscalculated property tax credit.
Commissioner Kevin B. Sullivan said DRS discovered that certain information provided to some resident income taxpayers claiming property tax credits was in error. “In this case, we did not correctly inform taxpayers of the additional phase down of the property tax credit enacted by the General Assembly in the 2015 legislative session,” he said in a statement.
The error does not affect single filers claiming a property tax credit but does affect some other filers claiming the credit. About 7 percent of all taxpayers are affected by the error.
DRS said as a result of this miscalculation, individual taxpayers who filed with the statuses of Married Filing Joint, Married Filing Separate, Qualifying Widower and Head of Household, who fall within the affected income thresholds, would either be underpaying or filing for refunds in amounts higher than they should have received. The department has stopped processing income tax returns that fit this criteria until the error is fixed.
The state intends to get its money. Affected taxpayers who have already received refunds or whose tax payments were completed before the error was discovered will be notified in writing by DRS. Those with a resulting underpayment will be billed without penalty or interest for the balance.
DRS said taxpayers who already received a refund will be given the option of making repayment now or as an offset when filing for the next tax year, also without penalties. Those whose returns were not processed prior to March 17 will either receive a reduced refund or notice of additional tax to be paid.
