Oregon Tax Kicker: How Much Will You Get Back on Your 2025 Tax Return?

Photo by Ron Lach

Get ready, Oregonians. The Oregon Department of Revenue is giving back money 2025. You’re in for a special tax kicker on your 2025 state personal income tax returns. Find out how the Oregon tax kicker works and how much you’ll get back.

While you’re exploring the tax kicker, check to see if you have any unclaimed money waiting for you.

What You Need to Know About the Oregon Tax Kicker

Here’s your guide to this unique credit available to Oregon taxpayers.

What is the Oregon tax kicker?

The Oregon surplus, also known as a kicker, allows the state to return excess revenue gathered from taxpayers. The money is returned to Oregon taxpayers on odd-numbered years when there is a revenue surplus.

Oregon is one of only nine states that has this law in place.

How much is the 2025 tax kicker?

On November 5, 2025, the Oregon Department of Revenue confirmed a $1.41 billion revenue surplus, resulting in a tax kicker for the 2025 tax year.

How do Oregonians receive the tax kicker?

The kicker is not mailed to you as a check or sent in any other form. Instead, it is returned through a credit on 2025 state personal income tax returns filed in 2026.

Depending on how much you owe in taxes, the kicker credit will increase your Oregon state income tax refund or decrease the amount of state taxes owed.

Keep in mind, if you owe back taxes, child support, court fines, or school loans, the state may use all or part of their kicker to pay this debt.

Who is eligible for the kicker?

The credit is a percentage of state personal income tax liability for the 2024 tax year. So, taxpayers who filed a 2024 tax year return and also file a 2025 tax year return can receive a kicker.

The kicker is given to full-year Oregon residents, part-year residents and non-residents who filed Oregon state personal income tax returns in 2024.

How much of a tax kicker will you receive on your 2025 taxes?

There are two options to find your answer: calculate it yourself or use the online calculator.

To calculate the amount of their credit, taxpayers can multiply their 2024 personal income tax liability before any credits—line 24 on the 2024 Form OR-40—by the kicker percentage. For 2025, it is 9.863%.

If you don’t want to source your 2024 return, you can simply enter your information into the What’s My Kicker? calculator on the Oregon Department of Revenue’s website.

What’s the fastest way to receive the tax kicker?

Once tax filing opens in January 2026, the fastest way to receive your tax kicker is to file electronically and use direct deposit to receive your refund.