How to Get Your Oregon Kicker Refund: Claim, Track, and Calculate

If you had Oregon income tax liability in 2024, your Oregon kicker refund is a credit worth 9.863 percent of that liability, claimed on the 2025 Oregon return you file in 2026.¹ The credit is refundable, so it either reduces what you owe on the 2025 return or increases the refund the state sends you.²

Who Qualifies

Three conditions must all be true:¹

You filed a 2024 Oregon personal income tax return.
Your 2024 Oregon tax before credits, withholding, and payments was greater than zero. Getting a refund for 2024 doesn’t disqualify you, as long as the underlying tax itself wasn’t zero.
You file a 2025 Oregon return, even if you otherwise wouldn’t be required to.

Your 2024 liability is the tax figure before credits, with one exception: a credit for income taxes paid to another state on income taxed by both states is subtracted first.³

You don’t need to still live in Oregon. Former residents, part-year residents, and nonresidents who had a 2024 Oregon liability all qualify on the same terms, and each has to file a 2025 Oregon return to claim the credit. Trusts, estates, and nonresidents included on a composite return filed by a pass-through entity can also receive the credit if a 2024 liability was reported for them. Corporate owners cannot.¹

How to Calculate Your Kicker Amount

Multiply your 2024 Oregon tax liability by 0.09863.¹ If you filed the full-year resident return, that liability appears on line 24 of your 2024 Form OR-40.⁴ For Form OR-40-N (nonresident) or OR-40-P (part-year), check the instructions for the equivalent line.

A quick example: a 2024 liability of $5,000 produces a kicker of $493.15.

If you can’t find your 2024 return, use the “What’s My Kicker?” calculator on the Department of Revenue website. Enter your name, Social Security number, and filing status, and it pulls your 2024 liability and returns the credit amount.¹ The 2025 return instructions also include worksheets, which matter most when your filing status changed between 2024 and 2025.

How to Claim the Credit on Your 2025 Return

Enter the calculated amount on the kicker credit line of your 2025 Oregon return. Because the credit is refundable, any portion that exceeds your 2025 tax comes back to you.²

You have three filing options: approved tax software, Direct File Oregon (a free tool that lets most full-year residents file directly with the state), or a paper return by mail.⁵ Paper takes considerably longer. The department verifies your kicker figure against its own records before releasing any refund, so double-check your math.

When Your Refund Will Arrive

You can follow the status through the “Where’s My Refund?” tool on the Department of Revenue site.⁶ Expected 2026 timing:

Electronic return with direct deposit: most refunds arrive within about two weeks of filing.⁷
Paper return: the state’s first paper-return refunds aren’t expected until April, and returns that need extra review can take up to 20 weeks.⁷

Direct deposit is the fastest route. Without bank details, the state mails a paper check.

Debts That Can Reduce Your Kicker

Oregon can apply your refund, including the kicker portion, to unpaid state taxes, past-due child support, and court-ordered fines. If that happens, you’ll get a notice showing the offset amount and the agency that received the payment.

Federal refunds can be reduced separately through the Treasury Offset Program for past-due child support, federal agency debts, state income tax obligations, and certain state unemployment compensation debts.⁸ To dispute a federal offset, call the Bureau of the Fiscal Service at 800-304-3107; for state intercepts, contact the Oregon Department of Revenue.

Donating the Kicker to Oregon Schools

You can send the entire kicker to the Oregon State School Fund, which supports K-12 public education. It has to be the full kicker amount; the School Fund doesn’t accept partial kicker donations. Once your return is filed, the choice can’t be reversed.⁹ Separately, you can direct part or all of your overall refund to approved charities using Form OR-DONATE.

Federal Tax Treatment

For federal purposes, the kicker is treated as a state tax refund, and Oregon reports it to the IRS on Form 1099-G.¹⁰ Whether it’s actually taxable depends on how you filed your prior federal return:

If you took the standard deduction, the kicker generally isn’t taxable.
If you itemized and deducted state income taxes, part or all of the kicker may be taxable under the tax benefit rule.

You’ll receive a 1099-G showing the kicker amount even if you donated it to the School Fund or the state applied it to a debt. The federal return instructions include a worksheet for figuring the taxable portion. If your state and local tax deduction was already capped at $10,000, the capped portion produced no tax benefit, which can reduce or eliminate the federal taxability of the kicker.

Claiming the Kicker for a Deceased Taxpayer

If someone eligible for the kicker died before their 2025 Oregon return was filed, a surviving spouse, personal representative, or other authorized person can file the return and claim the credit. Oregon uses Form OR-243 (Claim to Refund Due a Deceased Person) to establish who is authorized to receive the refund.¹¹ The federal counterpart is IRS Form 1310.¹²

1
Oregon Department of Revenue. Oregon Surplus (“Kicker”)
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Department of Revenue. Fact Sheet: Oregon’s Surplus Revenue “Kicker” Credit
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Oregon Secretary of State. Division 291 Personal Income Tax Surplus Refund
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Oregon Department of Revenue. 2024 Form OR-40, Oregon Individual Income Tax Return
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Oregon Department of Revenue. Direct File Oregon
6
Oregon Department of Revenue. Where’s My Refund?
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Department of Revenue. State Issues First 2026 Income Tax Refunds for E-Filed Returns
8
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 203, Reduced Refund
9
Department of Revenue. Taxpayers to Receive Kicker Credit on 2025 Oregon Tax Returns Next Year
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-G (Rev. December 2026)
11
Oregon Department of Revenue. Form OR-243, Claim to Refund Due a Deceased Person
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1310, Statement of Person Claiming Refund Due a Deceased Taxpayer