Oregon’s kicker tax rebate: How it works

The deadline to file your taxes is less than a month away. This year, some taxpayers are receiving an Oregon tax kicker credit part of their refund.

The tax credit, commonly known as the “kicker,” occurs when state revenues exceed forecast revenues by 2 percent. Since there was $402 million in tax surplus for the 2014 tax year, taxpayers will see that money returned this year.

In the past the Department of Revenue has issued kicker checks, but this year, it’s getting calculated and tacked on to your tax return.

Tax preparer Jamasa Sattler from Helping You Tax & Accounting in Redmond said Wednesday that so far, she hasn’t seen any trouble with figuring out the credit, but everyone needs a reminder.

“It’s something we have to go in and do a manual entry for, and it’s easy to forget,” she said. “Especially if we have people who are part-year residents or didn’t bring their 2014 tax return. We really need that 2014 tax return to pull that tax liability amount, in order to calculate the credit.”

Taxpayers who filed a 2014 personal income tax return with a tax due before credits can claim the credits this year.

According to Sattler, the average credit amount varies from $20 to up to $350.

“It’s not thousands. It’s not a windfall by any means. But it’s a little something to boost your already available refund,” Sattler said.

If you’d like to see how much your kicker amount is, it takes only a check on the website Oregon.gov. Under taxes, there’s a ‘What’s my kicker?’ quick link. Fill out your Social Security number, your last name and what you filed for the 2014 and 2015 tax year.

These kickers will only apply for personal income tax returns, not for businesses.