Tax Refund Responsibility Act

Tax Refund Responsibility Act

This bill requires the governor of Guam to ensure that (1) each refund claim relating to the Guam income tax is processed within 90 days after it is filed, (2) valid refunds are issued within 90 days after the refund form is filed, and (3) a sufficient percentage of taxes collected by the government of  Guam is deposited into the Guam Income Tax Refund Efficient Payment Trust Fund to cover the cost of refunds.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4262 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4262

 To ensure that refunds of overpayments of the Guam Territorial Income 
       Tax are issued in a timely manner, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 10, 2019

 Mr. San Nicolas introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To ensure that refunds of overpayments of the Guam Territorial Income 
       Tax are issued in a timely manner, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Tax Refund Responsibility Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) For nearly two decades, the Government of Guam has been 
        unable to set aside money to pay for income tax refunds and 
        instead has relied on accumulated deficits and subsequent 
        borrowing on the bond market, amassing close to half a billion 
        dollars of debt, to pay accrued income tax refund payments owed 
        to its taxpayers.
            (2) The enactment of an amendment to the Organic Act of 
        Guam requiring that the Government of Guam deposit tax 
        collections in the Income Tax Refund Efficient Payment Trust 
        fund, as created by Guam Public Law 26-74, would prevent 
        further unbalanced budgeting, deficit spending, chronic 
        borrowing, and future burdens on the taxpayers of Guam.

SEC. 3. TIMELY REFUNDS OF OVERPAYMENT OF GUAM TERRITORIAL INCOME TAX.

    Section 31 of the Organic Act of Guam (48 U.S.C. 1421i) is amended 
by adding at the end the following:
    ``(i) The Governor of Guam shall ensure that--
            ``(1) each form filed by a person or entity for a refund of 
        overpayment of the Guam Territorial Income Tax is processed by 
        the Government of Guam not later than 90 days after such form 
        was filed; and
            ``(2) a refund of the full amount of any overpayment of the 
        Guam Territorial Income Tax that the Government of Guam has 
        deemed valid is issued to the person or entity who filed for 
        such refund not later than 90 days after the form for the 
        refund was filed.''.

SEC. 4. DEPOSIT TO THE INCOME TAX REFUND EFFICIENT PAYMENT TRUST FUND.

    The Organic Act of Guam (48 U.S.C. 1421 et seq.) is amended by 
inserting after section 22D the following:

``SEC. 23. DEPOSIT TO THE INCOME TAX REFUND EFFICIENT PAYMENT TRUST 
              FUND.

    ``Not later than 10 days after the end of each calendar month, the 
Governor of Guam shall ensure that there is directly deposited into the 
Guam Income Tax Refund Efficient Payment Trust Fund a percentage of the 
payroll withholding taxes and income taxes collected by the government 
of Guam for that month and a percentage of the self-employed payroll 
withholding taxes collected for the quarter, equal to the percentage of 
the budgeted forecasted amount set aside for income tax refunds, earned 
income tax credits, and child tax credits adopted in the Government of 
Guam's fiscal year budget, so that not later than 10 days after the end 
of the calendar year, not less than the amount necessary for income tax 
refunds, earned income tax credits, and child tax credits for that 
calendar year shall have been deposited into the Trust Refund Efficient 
Payment Trust Fund.''.

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the first 
January 1 to occur after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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