5 million North Carolina taxpayers could get tax refunds this fall if bill passes

RALEIGH -- Updated to clarify that most, not all, of the budget surplus would be refunded to taxpayers.

The state’s $900 million budget surplus should be partly returned to taxpayers, General Assembly leaders said Wednesday before releasing a proposal they have drafted to give out income-tax refunds this fall to millions of North Carolina taxpayers.

Their plan would give roughly $680 million in tax refunds of $125 to taxpayers who filed singly or $250 to couples who filed jointly. That is 3.6 million tax returns for 5.1 million taxpayers. The taxpayers would only get the $125 or $250 if they paid at least that much in taxes, and the refunds would be capped at those amounts.

“The people sent more money than the government budgeted for, and the governor will not work with us to appropriate that surplus,” House Speaker Tim Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican, said at a news conference Wednesday at the General Assembly.

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article234196267.html