by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM NewsWednesday, May 07, 2008 Subscribe to Clynt's newsfeed
Up to 3,200 people may receive their rebates by either this Friday or next Monday. However, not everyone will get the full amount they are entitled to and some may even have to wait until next year. According to Guam Department of Revenue & Taxation director Art Ilagan the agency will deduct any taxes owed from taxpayer rebates. In other words, if you owe Rev & Tax $200 and your rebate is for $600, you'll only be getting $400.Some are against this, as the rebates are part of President George W. Bush's Economic Stimulus Act and thus meant to go straight to taxpayers so that they can then re-infuse the nation's ailing economy. Senator Ben Pangelinan (D) sent a letter to Governor Felix Camacho requesting that no rebates be garnished and that the full amounts go to the taxpayers. Yet director Ilagan says that his agency has a memorandum of understanding with the Internal Revenue Service allowing them to use rebates to offset taxes owed, adding that they have opinions from the IRS approving this.Also while 3,200 returns have already been processed, Ilagan says they are behind the 8 ball in processing returns. Ilagan says that with about 60,000 refunds the agency should be processing 2,000 a week in order to pay out all rebates by December 31. The problem is they're only processing about 5,600 refunds a week, which means some won't get their rebates until 2009. In fact, Ilagan says any rebates carrying over to next year will then become tax credits.As for those who filed via the World Wide Web, you should be among the first to get your rebates. Ilagan says that online filing is easiest to process.