Vonage to refund $3 million

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N.C. tax returns 4 weeks behind

RALEIGH — North Carolina is about four weeks behind last year in sending out taxpayer refunds in a deliberate policy to manage state government’s fiscal crisis.

“We’re backed up on that about four weeks,” Ken Lay, the state revenue secretary, said in an interview.

Lay said he has heard from numerous taxpayers expressing concern about their tax refunds — some of them from people who have lost their jobs and are in dire financial straits.

State tax refunds slower this year

North Carolina is about a month behind compared to last year in sending out tax refunds in a deliberate effort to manage the state government's fiscal crisis.

"We're backed up on that about four weeks," Ken Lay, the state revenue secretary, said in an interview Thursday.

Lay said he had heard from numerous taxpayers expressing concern about their refunds, including people who are in dire financial straits because they have lost their jobs.

State of denial

I had to laugh (grimly) when reading Revenue Secretary Ken Lay's claim that taxpayers can expect to receive refunds two to four weeks after submitting returns electronically. It's been well over five weeks since Intuit reported that our electronically filed return was accepted by N.C. DOR, but we still haven't seen our refund. Our federal return was filed at the same time, and its refund was electronically deposited into our bank account March 13.

If the state of North Carolina can't keep its promise even for returns filed in early March, how can it possibly meet its two- to four-week deadline for the huge number of returns filed in the first half of April?

Bob Goudreau

A taxing wait

Every morning I check my account to see evidence of my state tax refund deposit. The federal Web site informs taxpayers of the refund date and actually honors its word; the N.C. site merely says, "In Process"!

It has been a month since my tax papers were received and a week since the required pay date if a tax payment had been owed. I will think long and hard about refining my estimated payments in the coming months because it is unfair to take advantage of those who are conscientious about reporting and paying taxes to our state.

Senior citizens and those on fixed incomes are forced to postpone purchases or to withdraw taxable funds from retirement accounts because our "Great North State" is stepping on the little people to afford its own budget.

Refunds remitted sluggishly

North Carolina's state income tax refunds are running about a month behind last year's pace in a deliberate attempt to keep state government afloat, The News & Observer's Rob Christensen reported last week.

"We are managing the redistribution very carefully," said Ken Lay, the state's newly appointed revenue secretary. "We are keeping our eye on the budget and on the cash flow."

Lay, who until January was an executive with Bank of America in Charlotte, has a difficult task in sending out state tax refunds as promptly as possible while holding on to the money long enough for state government to meet its payroll and pay its bills.