How much interest income will Oregon make by holding taxpayer refunds by 'manually reviewing' them?

[Critter]

Like it or not this is how they are combating income tax fraud ... if the process takes longer than allowed they are required to pay you interest ... see their web site for the details.

[GeoffreyG · Accepted solution]

Hello andybev01:

As Critter#2 correctly points out, Oregon's "manual review" process is not just a matter of state cash management and budgeting, but has to do as well with ongoing efforts to counter income tax refund filing fraud.  Oregon, in particular, has experienced some widely-reported (in the popular media) instances of tax refund fraud in recent years.  It's quite possible that, in response, they've therefore increased the level of security and scrutiny with respect to tax return processing and the release of refunds.

Please know that this is not in any way meant to be an excuse or apology for the Oregon Department of Revenue; it's just an outside observation from the standpoint of a professional CPA, with years of experience in the field.

That said, you may be interested in reading the following (related) Oregon posts on the TurboTax AnswerXchange, as they involve this manual review and processing topic:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3697969

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3223710

Thank you for asking about this matter, and for using the TurboTax AnswerXchange.