ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Tuesday that Georgians will be receiving money back in their pockets with the tax relief rebates.
The Peach State's governor said the rebate proposal will save residents over $1 billion across the state.
"When you add that to the other relief measures I listed earlier, this group will have saved or returned over $6.6 billion for hardworking Georgians," he added.
On Tuesday, Kemp echoed the impacts of Hurricane Helene and rising costs to explain why the state was giving residents their money back.
So, how much are the surplus tax rebates?
- $250 to a single tax filer
- $375 to the head of a household
- $500 to married couples filing jointly
Are they different from the Georgia surplus tax refund checks?
Gov. Kemp called the payments rebates instead of refund checks, so it's unclear how similar the process will be.
We know the governor said it would be a one-time payment to Georgians.
He also stated that the rebates are modeled after the surplus checks from previous years.
When will they be issued?
Gov. Kemp said that Georgians could see the rebate within the coming year, but he did not give an exact date or a timeline.
As of Oct. 22, it appears the rebates are in the proposal stage and will get voted on and possibly passed sometime next year in 2025.
Who could see these rebates?
The exact requirements or qualifications for receiving these rebates are unclear. Still, they could model previous tax relief payments, where taxpayers must have paid and owed the state of Georgia taxes within a specific tax year.
Kemp echoed throughout his speech that hard-working Georgians were at the forefront of this decision.
"That money belongs to hard-working Georgians. It belongs to small businesses that drive our economy. It belongs to the farmers and families who were devastated by Hurricane Helene. It belongs to the rural communities to help grow opportunity, and it belongs in the pockets of men and women throughout our state who are struggling due to bad policies coming out of Washington DC," Kemp said.
Why are you getting this money?
Georgia is still sitting on a large pile of money -- the state now has more than $11 billion in surplus funds that leaders can spend however they want.
But when you count Georgia's rainy day fund and lottery reserve, the state is sitting on more than $19 billion.
"Well, the thing about what we're doing today is this funding will be done through the amended budget. So this is one-time money," Kemp added. "This is not something that will go on in perpetuity that we'll have to pay for the next year and the next year after that, this will be a one-time move that we're making to send money back to the folks that sent it to us and we didn't need it all. So we're gonna send it back to you."
What do you need to do?
According to the governor's office, "no additional action is necessary." They will just need to make sure their 2023 and 2024 tax returns are filed.
The governor also stated that the tax rebates will not be taxable income under Georgia law.