The Department of Revenue has received more than 30,000 abatement claims resulting from the issuance of revised DD 12-1, on March 15, 2012,: G.L. c.62, s.6(a) Credit for Taxes Paid to Another Jurisdiction: Insurance Fund Payments Made Pursuant to Rhode Island Law. This Directive ruled that mandatory payments made by a Massachusetts taxpayer to Rhode Island under the Rhode Island Temporary Disability Insurance Act should be afforded the credit against Massachusetts personal income tax as taxes paid to another jurisdiction. The Directive allowed Massachusetts taxpayers who have paid the RI Disability tax to claim a credit for tax year 2011, and for the three years previous. Now that the April 18 tax filing deadline has passed, those seeking the credit may file for tax years 2011, 2010 and 2009. The Directive triggered a huge volume of abatements, many of them filed in error. The most frequent of those errors is to calculate the credit incorrectly by claiming the amount paid to the Rhode Island fund as the amount of the requested abatement. This, however, is not a refundable credit. For instance, if your Massachusetts income tax for the period was zero there is no allowable credit for taxes paid to another jurisdiction. The allowable credit is the lesser of the Massachusetts income tax on the income reported to Rhode Island compared with the actual income tax paid to Rhode Island plus the RISDI. Based upon the significant number of abatements and the amount of time needed for our staff to recalculate the allowable credit for all applicable tax years, the length of time to process these abatements has significantly increased. To help address this backlog and time delay, DOR has reassigned staff to assist in working these abatement cases. The Department processes and completes abatement claims on a first in, first out basis. Based upon the high volume of claims received, our processing time is approximately six months. We appreciate your patience in this matter and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.