On April 27, 2015, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed House Bill No. 384, establishing a reciprocal refund and payment offset program.
The offset program allows the commissioner of administration and the director of the revenue to jointly enter into a reciprocal collection and offset of indebtedness agreement with the federal government. Pursuant to this agreement:
- The federal government will intercept tax refunds and payments otherwise due to vendors and contractors providing goods or services to the federal government in order to offset non-tax debt owed by such taxpayers and federal government vendors and contractors to the state of Missouri
- The state of Missouri will intercept tax refunds and payments otherwise due to vendors and contractors providing goods or services to the state in order to offset non-tax debt owed by such taxpayers and federal government vendors and contractors to the federal government
Additionally, the commissioner and director may enter into similar reciprocal agreements with other states to offset a taxpayer or government vendor or contractor's state non-tax debt due from state tax refunds and payments otherwise due to vendors and contractors providing goods or services to state departments, agencies or other state agencies.
Any Missouri taxpayer or government vendor or contractor that has outstanding non-tax debt to any state or the federal government should consider the impact of this program, as it will allow Missouri, other states and the federal government to intercept tax refunds and payments otherwise due to settle their outstanding non-tax debts.
