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Virginia lawmakers are at odds. And it could delay your tax refund

Posted at 6:12 AM, Jan 28, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-28 08:40:03-05

The IRS will start accepting your tax returns Monday, but that doesn’t mean your tax refund will arrive when you usually expect it to.

The Virginia Department of Taxation says you can file your state refund like normal – but they will *not* begin processing them yet because of differing opinions between Republicans and Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly on how to respond to the federal tax changes from 2017, which will give more than $1 billion in new tax money to the Commonwealth.

Governor Northam has proposed using those dollars to pay for things like education and refunds for low-income Virginians.

But Republicans say his plan equates to a middle-class tax hike– and have pitched holding onto that new money until an agreement can be reached on what to do with it.

Both the house and senate will discuss tax policy this week.