One-time rebates will start going out to eligible taxpayers starting September 16 from the Virginia Department of Taxation. Rebates will be sent out based on the order the state received and fully processed tax returns. You can find out more here.
The General Assembly approved one-time payments of up to $250 per individual and up to $500 per married couple earlier this summer with bipartisan support.
Virginians may get less than the maximum or nothing at all if they owe money to certain government agencies and institutions. Affected taxpayers will need to resolve those issues with the debt setoff agency.
Earlier this year, NFIB here in Virginia launched our Small Business Recovery program and the rebate is one of the victories that small business owners will see coming out of the legislative session.
NFIB’s plan included recommendations that will help the commonwealth’s smallest businesses by providing tax relief, providing regulatory relief, targeting financial assistance, and reforming unemployment insurance.
Here’s a look at some of our legislative victories in this year’s session of the General Assembly:
PASSED $1 BILLION IN TAX RELIEF
NFIB was the only business organization to advocate for and pass approximately $1 billion in tax relief for Virginia’s taxpayers. This legislation gives small businesses in Virginia very similar tax benefits found in the Tax Reform and Jobs Act passed at the federal level, increases the standard deduction by 50% and provides a one-time tax refund of $110 per taxpayer to be paid in the fall of 2019.
REJECTED RIGHT-TO-WORK REPEAL
NFIB worked to get legislators to reject efforts by Big Labor to repeal Virginia’s Right-to-Work law.
DEFEATED MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE
NFIB led the fight to defeat a $15 minimum wage increase on the floor of the Virginia Senate.
BLOCKED MANDATORY PAID LEAVE
NFIB continued to stop as many as four different proposals that would require employers to provide paid time off for sick or maternity leave. One specific proposal would have created a new “paid leave insurance program” modeled on the unemployment insurance fund. Initial projections showed over $2.6 billion in employer and employee taxes being imposed to pay for what would be one the country’s most generous state-run programs.
PASSED BUILDING PERMIT REFORM
NFIB supported efforts to provide more certainty and transparency in the local building permit approval process. HB 1966 requires that when a local building official denies a building permit application, they must provide to the business a written explanation detailing the reasons why the application was denied. And the bill also provides that when the applicant submits a revised application addressing the reasons for denial, that the local building department shall be encouraged, but not required, to limit its review of the revised application to only those portions of the application that were denied.
