Louisiana recovers $22M of double-paid tax refunds so far

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has recovered more than $22 million of tax refund overpayments made last week, the revenue department said Wednesday.

Agency spokesman Byron Henderson said more than 80 percent of the $26 million incorrectly sent to taxpayers has been recouped electronically, and the work continues to collect the remaining dollars.

More than 66,700 taxpayers were double-paid their state tax refunds a week ago, in what state officials described as a computer processing error that was quickly corrected. In most instances, officials say the double payment was made through bank account direct deposits and debit card allocations that can be reversed.

"That process is still ongoing. At a certain point, we're going to reach a stage where we realize we can't recover any more electronically. At that point we will send taxpayers a letter with repayment instructions," Henderson said. "They will have 30 days from the date of the letter to make repayment."

No letters have been sent yet, he said.