By The Star Staff
Some 177,000 taxpayers will receive the one-time refundable incentive that the Financial Oversight and Management Board approved for the 2023 tax year, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Wednesday.
The governor sent to the Legislature the measure that would increase the budget by $260 million and use that amount as an incentive. In total, 600,000 taxpayers will receive some type of relief.
“The agreement is that instead of being left with nothing, without any incentive, in-stead of no taxpayer receiving an incentive in this next calendar year, that is, in 2024 [...] about 600,000 taxpayers receive the relief, which the [Legislative] Assembly has already approved, but it will be through an incentive,” the governor said at a press conference. “That is, this is like a separate payment. They are going to file their income tax return. Still, the Treasury is going to give them this incentive payment.”
The move comes after the oversight board, which rejected the proposed tax re-form, said Tuesday it was willing to approve a one-time tax relief.
For the refundable incentive to be granted, the governor sent a measure to the Legislative Assembly that would increase the current budget by $260 million, with that sum to be used as an incentive. Pierluisi stated that it is not necessary to convene an extraordinary session, but that he hopes that when the Legislature resumes work in January, the bill will be evaluated quickly.
The governor said taxpayers will file their income tax returns as usual and if they qualify, the Treasury Department will send them a check sometime starting in April 2024.
“This would be a separate incentive that the Treasury will provide to taxpayers using the $260 million added to the current fiscal year budget via this amendment to the joint resolution that approved the budget,” the governor said. “The exact term is incentive, reimbursable.”