IRS beat the Kentucky revenue bureau
April 25, 2009Every year that I lived in Kentucky, my refund from the state always came back sooner than my federal refund from the IRS. Sometimes Kentucky beat the IRS by a week or more.
But this year the IRS beat Kentucky. The Federal refund showed up in my checking account yesterday, which was also pay day. Made for an unexpectedly large balance when I went to pull out some money from the ATM.
In fact this is the fastest that I think I’ve ever received the federal refund — less than two weeks from the time I filed to the time the IRS direct-deposited into my account. I wonder if that’s part of the stimulus plan, to get refunds into the hands of taxpayers as quickly as possible? I had thought that since I filed so late, the refund would be delayed due to the crush of other late filers.
So now the question is how much later will Kentucky’s refund arrive? Like most states I assume they’ve got budget woes of their own, they aren’t exactly motivated to turn around refunds that quickly. They have to manage cash flow carefully, I’m thinking there’s a possibility the refund won’t arrive until May. So that the hit to state revenue happens as late as possible. It’s only a couple hundred dollars but every penny matters to the states these days.