Refunds are quicker for OR e-filers
By Terry Murry on Thursday, February 19th, 2026 in Columbia Basin News Featured Stories More Top Stories
SALEM – The Oregon Department of Revenue (DOR) has already begun distributing refunds for the 2025 tax year. Through Tuesday, the DOR had processed over 500,000 electronically-filed returns.
Those who e-file the taxes, with some exceptions, get their refunds within two weeks of the date they are filed. However, those who file paper returns will wait much longer. DOR will not begin processing those forms until late March, with checks beginning to go out in April.
The reason for the delay with paper filings stems from a problem with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in late 2025. That agency was late providing necessary tax form information to the DOR.
Oregon is returning a $1.41 billion revenue surplus kicker to taxpayers in 2026. The kicker credit will either increase a taxpayer’s refund or decrease the amount of taxes they owe. To be eligible for a kicker payment, taxpayers must also have filed a 2024 return with the state. Individual amounts of kicker payments can be determined at the “What’s My Kicker? calculator.
