The Nitty Gritty on a Potential Tax Rebate for Montanans
If Montana lawmakers are able to hold a special session of the legislature and give you some of your money back- who would qualify? How much could you get back? Would you get a rebate on your property taxes also?
Rep. Bill Mercer (R-Billings) got into "the nitty gritty" details of what a tax rebate could look like on Monday morning. He says the lawmakers who are proposing the tax rebates have modeled the legislation off of what has already been done in the state of Georgia.
Rep. Mercer: We would take $650 million of the surplus, and we would say if you were a resident taxpayer and filed a return in 2020, and if you were resident taxpayer and filed a tax return in 2021, your rebate would be calculated based upon what you paid in individual income tax liability in 2021. So on line 20 of the Montana tax return, that's where it shows what your overall tax liability has been, and the rebate is structured this way. You could get up to $1,250 if you were an individual taxpayer. If you were a joint taxpayer, husband and wife filing jointly, you could be eligible for up to $2,500.
What if you paid less in taxes?
Rep. Mercer: If you paid less than $1,250 in individual income tax liability in 2021, you'd only get whatever you paid in. So if was $800, you'd get $800 back. If it was $8,000, you'd get $1,250 back. So the maximum is $1,250.
What if you're on a fixed income, but getting hammered by property tax hikes?
Rep. Mercer: We dedicate $250 million of this rebate program to people that have paid property taxes. And the way we've structured that is, is focused on a $1,000 maximum rebate for people that paid real property taxes in the scenario I just said in 2021. So if you had a real property tax bill in 2021 of $2,500, you would be eligible for $1,000 of rebate based upon that tax paid. So it's a broad-based proposal. We're taking 900 million, and we're dedicating some of it to people who had individual income tax liability. We're dedicating this separate portion to people that had primary residences in which they occupied for seven months or more. And in the event that they had property tax liability in 2021 in that scenario, but they didn't quite have $1,000, they could look back if they had the same thing in 2020.
Mercer says if you support a special session of the legislature to get these tax rebates, you need to contact your state legislator today.
Rep. Bill Mercer (R-Billings) joined us on Monday's statewide radio show- "Montana Talks with Aaron Flint."