All taxes filed as of January 28, 2015 are included in the first batch of tax refunds that were issued last Friday afternoon and will continue today, according to a statement issued by ASG Treasurer Ueligatone Tonumaipe’a last Friday.

The Treasurer noted that to assist the public with tracking their refunds, to always keep in mind the filing date — because that is the “when and how” of the order in which tax refunds are disbursed.

Last week members of the public complained to their lawmakers, asking about the delay in the issuance of their tax refunds, and was it because the government didn’t have the money.

However, at the time, the Treasurer explained that the delay was due to the time it takes to process with Internal Revenue Service — it takes up to three weeks.

He said, “All disbursements are issued in batches based on the date you filed. The first batch of refunds has been transmitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and all tax filings as of January 28, 2015 are included in the first batch.”

The Treasurer said that the request for IRS approval had been sent. “It normally takes up to three weeks to process the requests, and a little over 1,000 filings were included in the first batch.”

According to the latest statement issued by the Treasurer, the second batch will follow shortly, however, a date was not provided.

Ueligatone further urges the public to contact the tax office if there are any questions.  According to an official from the tax office, about $1.7 million in tax refund checks are ready for pick up.