SECRETARY of Finance David DLG Atalig said the CNMI is looking to roll out the second round of stimulus payments at the end of January.
As of Thursday, the Commonwealth anticipated around $47 million in this second round of stimulus payments for CNMI taxpayers.
After a recent conference call with the Internal Revenue Service, an implementation plan for these funds was submitted by the CNMI.
Atalig noted that the processing of stimulus checks in the mainland is different from the U.S. territories.
In the states, he said the IRS directly submits and sends payments to taxpayers.
U.S. territories are required to submit an implementation plan detailing how they are going to implement the distribution of stimulus checks.
Once that implementation plan is approved, funds will be transferred to the territories and made available for distribution to their taxpayers.
Atalig said it is expected that the IRS will review and approve the CNMI implementation plan within 10 days after its submission.
“As we all know, we’ve had a very successful implementation program and rollout in the first stimulus [or Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act] distribution,” he said.
His department has updated its implementation plan to address some of the challenges and lessons learned from the first rollout in order to have a smoother second rollout, Atalig said.
“I think more people are informed about the challenges that we had in the early stages of rolling out the stimulus here in the CNMI,” he said.
For the second round of stimulus payments, each CNMI taxpayer will receive $600.
Atalig said “clean” tax returns through 2018 data will be used, but he added that his department is aware that there are some differences between taxpayer income earned in 2018 and 2019.
There are ongoing discussions with the IRS to address these differences, he said.
“Those that have ‘clean’ tax returns and…not much of a big change within their 2018 and 2019 tax returns will probably get their stimulus checks right away,” Atalig said.
In the first round, he said, the CNMI distributed over $58 million, while in the second round, it is anticipated that $47 million will be distributed.
“Those are the estimates that we have from [the Division of Revenue and Taxation],” he added.
The CNMI usually receives the transfer of funds three to four weeks after the passage of the stimulus measure by the U.S. Congress, and so it is anticipated that by late January or early February, the release of the second round of stimulus checks will commence.
