It’s official: IRS confirms that DFL blunder has landed Minnesotans with a federal tax liability
In 2022, Governor Walz ran promising COVID-relief “Walz checks,” which would amount to up to $2,600 for a family of four. On January 30, 2023, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:
…the Biden Administration announced its intent to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations on May 11, 2023, related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At this point, the state government knew that it would need to pass the “Walz checks” legislation in order for them not to be taxed as income. With their much vaunted “trifecta,” the DFL could have passed such legislation immediately.
It did not. Not because it wasn’t busy — indeed, one DFL committee chair admitted to being so “overwhelmed” by the sheer number of bills that they were being passed without due diligence — but rather because its priorities lay elsewhere. So, as I wrote in December, the DFL:
…passed a bewildering volume of bills, including its “trans refuge” bill and a bill authorizing driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. Yet, the legislation authorizing the rebate checks wasn’t signed until May 24, two weeks after the deadline for counting as a tax free, COVID-19 relief payment. So, the feds are taking their cut.
Desperate DFLers have been pleading with the IRS to bail them out, but to no avail. This week the Feds announced that, thanks to the DFL’s blunders, they will be taking a cut of your Walz check after all.
No doubt DFLers will huff and puff. In December, the Governor complained that: “Minnesota is being treated unfairly on this. They picked an arbitrary date to end the emergency.” Arbitrary or not, the DFL had five months notice and still failed to act because it was focused on other things. It is hardly surprising that such arguments failed to blow the IRS’ house down.
As I wrote in December:
The payments, which the governor originally promised would amount to up to $2,600 for a family, ended up, after the DFL’s orgy of spending, totaling a maximum of $1,300 for a family. Now, depending on the amount of the rebate and an individual’s federal tax bracket, recipients may have to hand up to $286 of that over to the feds.