ALASKA - If you haven't applied for your 2012 Permanent Fund Dividend yet, you better hurry up, because the deadline is this Saturday.
With PFD offices not open on the weekend officials want to make sure you make the right steps to turn in your application on time. If you are a procrastinator, it’s okay because there are some things you can do to make sure you don't miss out.
Trying to beat the 11:59 p.m. March 31 deadline to file PFDs, people are lining up in the Anchorage office, eager to make sure they get their annual Alaska check. It didn't matter the reason why they were there or how they plan on spending it, because the bottom line was they don't want to miss out.
That’s something PFD officials don't want to happen either. “We are glad to see them, glad to help them,” said PFD Division Director Deborah Bitney. “We have people working the lines trying to get people out of line as quickly as possible.”
Bitney suggests avoiding the packed offices and filing electronically online. If you are worried about running into problems with the myAlaska logins, just start over at the PFD website at pfd.alaska.gov. The most important thing is making sure you have a printed signature page.
“Get that time stamp; get that confirmation number from what you filed; – we'll deal with it if you can't sign it [until] later,” said Bitney. “Actually the signing ceremony isn't that critical; what's really important is getting that application submitted.”
They’re easy steps to take to get your PFD, so come October you can spend it like everyone else. Last year about 643,000 PFD's were paid out – a number that might be bigger this year. Right now over 518,000 Alaskans have already filed online and by Saturday's 11:59 p.m. deadline officials expect close to 670,000 applications will be filed.
