"One big oops:" Minnesotans mistakenly get double tax refunds

The Minnesota Revenue Department unintentionally gave taxpayers an extra $9 million last week.

"It was a human error and it was inadvertent and it was one big oops," said Kit Borgman, Revenue Department spokeswoman.

The department owed 14,000 refunds worth about $9 million on a variety of taxes. On Friday, paid them electronically in one big batch. Then Monday, the department paid the $9 million to those taxpayers again.

"The Department identified the error immediately and reversed payment on the second round of refunds," the department said.

That means taxpayers who saw a second influx of cash from the state will see that extra lucre disappear. Although the reversal request was put in Tuesday, the cash will not actually go poof until Wednesday, Borgman said.

She said Minnesotans started calling about the extra payments Tuesday. Honest Minnesotans that they were, they generally said they wanted to alert the state that they had been overpaid.

Asked about the chance that some of the 14,000 might just take the money and run, Borgman said: "Most people will notice that it is the same amount and it's in there twice. Hopefully, they will give us 24 hours to correct the problem."