A program to shake some coins out of errant Arizona taxpayers has produced far more money than anticipated.
 
The program was approved earlier this year by the Legislature. The idea was that it might just jog the memories of people who "forgot" to file if they knew they would only owe the taxes and not interest and penalties.

The hope was to generate about $15 million. Sean Laux of the Department of Revenue said the payments tallied by Monday's 5 p.m. deadline exceeded $46 million — and there are still more applications to review.

"We're going to spend the next couple of weeks processing applications and payments. So what the actual final magic number is we won't know for a few weeks yet. But it's likely that it will push over $50 million," said Laux.

Laux said what may have help bring taxpayers out of the woodwork was the fact that the plan forgave all penalties and interest. Prior amnesty programs provided partial relief.