Tax refunds running ahead of last year

The Department of Revenue is processing tax refunds more quickly than last year.

Posted 5:40 p.m. Mar 23, 2012 — Updated 5:40 p.m. Mar 23, 2012

You may remember two years ago that North Carolina had trouble processing state income tax refunds on time. The problem back then was the state was broke and needed to make sure it didn't pay out more in refunds than it had in the bank.

Needless to say, that situation made people cranky. People didn't want the state to use their money to cash-flow government operations when they had cash-flow issues of their own.

Last year, the department made taxpayers a lot happier. And the following note from Beth Stevenson, a spokeswoman at the N.C. Department of Revenue, is good news concerning this year:

"As for refunds, they are being processed and checks (or direct deposits) are going out every week. Right now we are a little ahead of last year. As of Monday, we have sent refunds to 1,244,341 refunds totaling $663,658,763.39. Last year we had sent refunds to 1,067,314 taxpayers totaling $561,073,179.12. As always we are working to issue refunds as quickly as possible, with the goal of getting out refunds that do not have errors or require review within 45 days."

Suggest A Correction