The Oregon surplus credit, known as the “kicker,” is a way for state government to return some of your taxes to you when revenues are more than predicted. The Oregon Department of Administrative Services determines whether there is a surplus and the amount to be returned to taxpayers as a kicker. If there’s a surplus, the kicker may be claimed on the return as a refundable tax credit. If there’s no surplus, there’s no kicker.

For 2019, your kicker is 17.171 percent of your 2018 total Oregon personal income tax liability. Depending on whether or not your filing status or marital status changed from 2018 to 2019, this amount may need to be adjusted further.

The following will take you back to the part of the program where you can enter the 2018 information needed to calculate the Oregon Surplus (Kicker) tax credit.

1. From within your TaxAct return (Online or Desktop), click on the State tab. On smaller devices, click the menu icon in the upper left-hand corner, then select State
2. Click Oregon directly below the tabs at the top of the screen
3. Click Credits 
4. Click Review to the right of Oregon Surplus (Kicker) Credit, the program will proceed with the interview questions for you to enter or review the appropriate information