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The deadline to file for your 2021 Alaska Permanent Fund dividend is Wednesday, March 31.
You can file your application online until 11:59 p.m. Alaska time Wednesday. Mailed applications must be postmarked no later than March 31.
If you’re turning in a paper application, make sure to get it in Wednesday. Office locations with drop boxes in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau are open weekdays until 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 580,000 Alaskans had already applied for their annual state oil wealth fund payouts, according to the Alaska Department of Revenue. The amount of the PFD is typically announced in September each year. (In 2020, Alaskans started receiving their PFD on July 1 — three months earlier than usual — as part of state officials’ response to economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.)
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While the amount of the PFD is always of interest to Alaskans, there’s been an especially close focus on it during Alaska’s budget crisis and the pandemic. Gov. Mike Dunleavy made the PFD a cornerstone of his 2018 campaign. He has proposed a constitutional amendment that would alter the traditional formula for paying the Permanent Fund dividend and enshrine the dividend in the Constitution.
Alaskans must have been a resident in the state for all of 2020 to be eligible for the 2021 PFD. You can find details about the other eligibility requirements on the state’s website, pfd.alaska.gov.
While PFD applications are due March 31, the signature page that accompanies the application can be turned in later, “although they should be provided as soon as possible,” according to the revenue department.
Note: This article has been updated to show that Permanent Fund Dividend offices with drop boxes are open until 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, not 4 p.m.