Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro and Senate President Warren Petersen advised on March 27 that Arizonans should not delay filing their taxes, despite confusion stemming from recent actions by Governor Hobbs. The lawmakers said the uncertainty is due to the Department of Revenue issuing tax forms based on full tax conformity before state law was updated, which conflicted with the governor’s own proposal.
According to the statement, Republican legislators responded by sending a fast-tracked tax relief bill to Governor Hobbs that included childcare deductions, retirement relief, and eliminated taxes on tips and overtime. The bill was vetoed by Hobbs. Lawmakers then sent a second measure intended to align state law with the issued forms and prevent taxpayers from needing to amend their returns; this bill was also vetoed.
Speaker Montenegro said, “Let’s be clear. This is a failure of leadership. The Governor’s office issued tax forms based on a law that did not exist, told people to file anyway, and then vetoed the bills that would have fixed the problem. Now families are left wondering whether they will have to redo their taxes, pay more later, or spend weeks dealing with a mess they did not create. This could have been avoided if Hobbs had stepped up and called the special session we urged last fall so this could be addressed before filing season. Now Arizona Republicans are holding the line. File your taxes. We will not support anything that forces Arizonans to refile or pay more because of the Governor’s poor decisions. Arizona families deserve certainty, and Governor Hobbs failed to provide it.”
Senate President Petersen added: “Arizonans should go ahead and file. They shouldn’t have to wait or deal with the fallout from this confusion. We’ve heard from people across the state looking for answers, including a woman who waited because she was trying to follow the rules. During that time, someone filed a return using her identity after a breach of her W-2. Her return was rejected because the IRS had already accepted a filing under her Social Security number, and now she’s stuck proving who she is and fixing the damage. That’s the real risk of telling people to wait. We sent solutions to the Governor to give taxpayers certainty. She vetoed them. Now families are paying the price.”
The issue centers around concerns that more than one million Arizonans could be required to amend their returns if changes are made during peak filing season.
Additional information about these statements can be found at the official roster page.
