The Walt Disney Company is not exactly known for giving people money. Still, for over 170 Rhode Island residents, it looked like Tinkerbell had delivered some extra help during the coronavirus economic downturn. They received checks signed by Mickey Mouse, a fictional character, and Walt Disney, who has been dead since 1966. The state said it was a technical glitch that put their names on the sales tax refund checks instead of Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and State Controller Peter Kennan's signatures. The snafu caught the attention of Twitter, where plenty of jokes were made.
"As a result of a technical error in the Division of Taxation's automated refund check printing system, approximately 176 checks with invalid signature lines were printed and mailed to taxpayers on Monday 7/27/2020," Jade Borgeson, the chief of staff for Rhode Island's Department of Revenue, said in a statement to WJAR. "The invalid signature lines were incorrectly sourced from the Division's test print files."
The Rhode Island Division of Taxation, a part of the state's revenue department, uses the Mickey and Disney signature images for dummy checks in internal testing, a spokesperson told WPRI. These were mistakenly put on the real checks instead of Magaziner and Kennan's signatures. Borgeson said the checks with the mistaken signatures have already been voiced and cannot be used. The correct checks will be sent out to taxpayers within a week, she said.
The checks are related to business taxes, like sales tax and corporate and tax credit refunds, reports WJAR. Most of the checks were for corporate tax refunds, Borgeson said. Anyone who received the misprinted checks can call (401) 574-8829 and press option 3, or email tax.assist@tax.ri.gov.