GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres said he is excited to see the second economic impact or stimulus payments distributed to the community.
“We’ll be rolling it out really soon,” he said on Friday.
Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig, for his part, thanked all of the CNMI taxpayers for their patience.
The U.S. Department of Treasury recently approved $41.3 million for the CNMI’s 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit and Second Economic Impact Payments or EIP2 plan.
Ninety percent of these funds were immediately transferred to the CNMI, Secretary Atalig said, adding that these amount to roughly $37 million.
The Department of Finance-Division of Revenue and Taxation is expected to process over 30,000 EIP2 payments based on the 2019 tax returns of CNMI taxpayers.
It has 60 days, or until March 21, 2021, to release the EIP2 payments.
Barring any technical issues, Atalig said the stimulus checks may be available by the end of the week.
“We’re excited for that,” he said.
An eligible individual will receive a $600 payment — or $1,200 for joint returns — as well as $600 per qualifying child under age 17.
Division of Revenue and Taxation Director Tracy Norita said there is no cap as to the number of qualifying children claimed per taxpayer.
However, there is a cap on the income threshold of taxpayers, similar to that of the first round of stimulus payments.
To receive payments quicker, taxpayers are encouraged to submit direct deposit information through the online portal found on dof.gov.mp or finance.gov.mp
After working through technical issues to ensure that the system does not crash with incoming traffic, which, Secretary Atalig mentioned, was the case during the implementation of the first round of stimulus payments, the CNMI stimulus web portal is now open to receive banking information for EIP2 direct deposits.
The portal has security features to protect the identity of taxpayers and to avoid errors in bank information.
EIP2 funding was made possible by the Covid-Related Tax Relief Act of 2020 or U.S. Public Law 116-260, which was signed by President Donald J. Trump on Dec. 27, 2020.
