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Tax Rebate your waiting on
TooBig
Member Posts: 28,560 ✭✭✭
America, don't blow this rebate
I found an interesting article online regarding those tax rebate checks the government is sending out in May. I thought it was just going to be extra money the government was giving to stimulate the economy, I had NO IDEA, it is simply a loan from my 2009 tax refund!! Why don't they ever mention this in the media. I wonder how many other people know that it is just a loan, and that you will have to pay it back in 2009, by having them either take it out of your refund next year, or owe them the money if you don't get a refund. Just a warning, you may want to hold on to it if that is the case. Read the article I found on MSN:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/Advice/TheDetailsOnTaxRebates.aspx
America, don't blow this rebate
Congress wraps up the details: $300 for retirees, $600 for most individuals and $1,200 for most couples. But wait, there's more: It's not really free money.
advertisement
By Liz Pulliam Weston
Some Americans are getting awfully excited about the prospect of spending their own money.
The $168 billion economic stimulus package just passed by Congress will ship checks of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples starting in May. Most households will get these checks, although individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000 will see less or nothing at all.
Additionally, families will get $300 per child.
The biggest change since the original proposal: Those who paid no income taxes will get $300 as long as they earned at least $3,000, including veterans disability or Social Security benefits.
An estimated 130 million taxpayers will share the rebate money.
Here's what you need to keep in mind while you're waiting:
This isn't free money -- for most people
To produce this cash, Congress created a one-time tax credit to reduce taxable income for most taxpayers this year.
Normally, you wouldn't see that cash until the spring of 2009, when you filed your 2008 return. But Congress wants to speed that money to you now, so checks will start going out in May.
Smart Spending blog: Rebate? Bonus? One is easier to spend
Remember, this is your money you're getting back, and the rebate checks are basically an advance on your 2009 refund. When similar rebates were sent out in 2001, said tax expert Mark Luscombe, "a lot of people were upset to see their (next) refund reduced."
The only people for whom this really is free money are low-income folks (those who earn at least the minimum $3,000 required to trigger the checks or who receive at least $3,000 in Social Security or veterans benefits) who won't end up owing any taxes for 2008. If that's your situation, or you somehow wind up with a check when you technically shouldn't have -- you earned income in 2007 but won't in 2008, for example -- you won't have to pay back the money, said Luscombe, a principal analyst for tax research firm CCH.
I found an interesting article online regarding those tax rebate checks the government is sending out in May. I thought it was just going to be extra money the government was giving to stimulate the economy, I had NO IDEA, it is simply a loan from my 2009 tax refund!! Why don't they ever mention this in the media. I wonder how many other people know that it is just a loan, and that you will have to pay it back in 2009, by having them either take it out of your refund next year, or owe them the money if you don't get a refund. Just a warning, you may want to hold on to it if that is the case. Read the article I found on MSN:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/Advice/TheDetailsOnTaxRebates.aspx
America, don't blow this rebate
Congress wraps up the details: $300 for retirees, $600 for most individuals and $1,200 for most couples. But wait, there's more: It's not really free money.
advertisement
By Liz Pulliam Weston
Some Americans are getting awfully excited about the prospect of spending their own money.
The $168 billion economic stimulus package just passed by Congress will ship checks of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples starting in May. Most households will get these checks, although individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000 will see less or nothing at all.
Additionally, families will get $300 per child.
The biggest change since the original proposal: Those who paid no income taxes will get $300 as long as they earned at least $3,000, including veterans disability or Social Security benefits.
An estimated 130 million taxpayers will share the rebate money.
Here's what you need to keep in mind while you're waiting:
This isn't free money -- for most people
To produce this cash, Congress created a one-time tax credit to reduce taxable income for most taxpayers this year.
Normally, you wouldn't see that cash until the spring of 2009, when you filed your 2008 return. But Congress wants to speed that money to you now, so checks will start going out in May.
Smart Spending blog: Rebate? Bonus? One is easier to spend
Remember, this is your money you're getting back, and the rebate checks are basically an advance on your 2009 refund. When similar rebates were sent out in 2001, said tax expert Mark Luscombe, "a lot of people were upset to see their (next) refund reduced."
The only people for whom this really is free money are low-income folks (those who earn at least the minimum $3,000 required to trigger the checks or who receive at least $3,000 in Social Security or veterans benefits) who won't end up owing any taxes for 2008. If that's your situation, or you somehow wind up with a check when you technically shouldn't have -- you earned income in 2007 but won't in 2008, for example -- you won't have to pay back the money, said Luscombe, a principal analyst for tax research firm CCH.
Comments
What exactly do they expect the "welfare" receivers to do with the money?
Buy a carton of smokes and a case of beer? Again?!
And what exactly is stimulating about giving poor people (SS and disabled) 300 bucks? They don't have money to spend anyway. Not like the money they receive will buy them a Lexus. It's chump change and only people PAYING enough in taxes OUGHT to receive it.
Blargh. I will be silent now. [V]