Pinal County officials announced yesterday that they have approved 224 refund requests from businesses that paid a now invalidated transportation excise tax under Propositions 416 and 417.

As of Friday, the county had received 274 refund applications. Of these, 23 were deemed ineligible due to applicants not meeting the necessary criteria or not having paid the tax, while another 23 were pending additional information from taxpayers. Four applications remain in the queue to review.​

The county has refunded about half of the total available funds, with some $47.3 million remaining. Officials continue to process applications and urge eligible taxpayers to submit all required documentation to avoid delays.​

Here’s some quick background

The tax was approved by Pinal County voters in 2017 through Prop 417, intended to fund transportation projects. It imposed a “two-tiered transaction privilege tax,” or TPT, on tangible personal property.

The tax system taxed the first $10,000 of any single item at ½% and exempted any amount above that. This structure was challenged in court, and in 2022, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that while the county complied with state law in adopting the transportation excise tax, the two-tiered retail TPT structure was invalid under the Arizona Constitution.

In March last year, the Arizona Department of Revenue, Pinal County and the Pinal Regional Transportation Authority entered into a memorandum of understanding to refund the collected taxes to eligible businesses.

Don’t forget the deadline

Businesses that filed and paid the invalidated tax between April 2018 and March 2022 are eligible to request a refund of monies paid, plus applicable interest. The deadline for submissions is April 9, 2026.

Only businesses that filed and paid the invalidated tax are eligible for refunds.

“As Arizona operates under a transaction privilege tax system, it is businesses, not consumers, that owe and pay the tax,” reads a Pinal County website about the refunds. Purchasers and customers of these businesses are not eligible to request or receive a refund.​

For assistance, businesses can contact county officials at 520-509-3555 or email [email protected].