Eric writes:
You’ve had a lot of press about the stimulus plan that’s about to send some cash my way. There’s been coverage all over the place, and everyone misses the most important part. What, EXACTLY, do I have to do to get this credit? I know I qualify. Do I have to send in an extra form? Is there a box I check? Am I supposed to expect the gov’t to actually do something right and take care of it themselves?
Yes. This is (probably) the easiest $600 you will ever made. Just file your taxes, sit back, and wait for the hot government scrizzle to come pouring into your mailbox.
(Photo: Getty)
Thanks for this, I was wondering the same thing…
I’m assuming its a separate check I’ll be getting well after I get my tax refund check?
I don’t trust my mail deliveries anymore.
Will the Government do a direct deposit of this check into my bank/checking account?
I had already e-filed my taxes and got a refund direct deposited by the time this was approved so I was wondering the same thing. Thanks for making this clear for those of us who are a little clueless.
I have been following the information about this plan but i can not tell if I qualify. If i file as a dependent (im 22 and in college) do i still qualify?
The next time you hear about how great “trickle-down economics” works, ask yourself why we’ve now had 2 economic stimulus rebate checks.
@SangreDeThor: did you make more than $3000 and pay federal taxes?
@SangreDeThor: Good question. You might not get anything, but you might net your folks a cool $300.
Are we still looking at the May/June time frame that I heard mentioned previously?
@ptkdude: Tax cuts + Spending cuts = Fantastic!
Tax cuts + Continued bloated spending = This
It’s that second part that politicians can’t seem to figure out…
@ptkdude: “The next time you hear about how great “trickle-down economics” works, ask yourself why we’ve now had 2 economic stimulus rebate checks.”
The way “trickle-down economics” works is the same as feeding a bird by first giving a mule oats.
Naturally I’m moving this month. I foresee a hassle in my future.
@quarterly: Just set up a forwarding address. Four months after I moved I’m still getting forwarded mail.
Is there anyway to skip the middleman and just receive the money as treasury bonds?
I only wish the IRS could see that I’m due in May and refund me the extra 300 now instead of having to wait for it until Jan-Feb of 2009 when I file my 2008 taxes.
Also, is this a one year tax break? As I understand, congress has lowered my 2008 tax burden and is giving me the money in advance (Well, technically, in our case, giving us back what they had withheld up until May-July, which with the additional tax break would become over withholdings). Remember, it’s not the government is actually giving us money, for most tax payers, it’s just that they are taking less.
Will my tax burden for my 2009 taxes be affected? Will my burden simply return to what it otherwise would have been had there not been this “stimulus plan”?
@ianmac47: No, because they want you to spend this money. Hence the term “stimulus.”
@ptkdude: The cash isn’t a supply-side (aka, “trickle-down”) stimulus. Try learning more about economics before criticizing.
RE Treasury Bonds: Doubt it. I think the govmnt wants you to go out and instantly blow your money on drugs and rock and roll. Some form of savings would be defying the people who screwed up the economy and would probably lead to an investigation by Homeland Security.
Isn’t the rebate technically just an advance on next year’s tax return? Or is it just “free money”?
I am a college student with $0 tax liability, filing independently. I have made several times the sufficient, qualifying amount – but since I have no tax liability, does this mean that I will not get this rebate/credit?
@CurbRunner: Slight difference. The mule has to take a dump eventually. In trickle down, the people at the top don’t necessarily have to give anything out. A better analogy for trickle down would be feeding rats by serving cake to people. The rich are the people, and the rest of us are the rats, getting the crumbs.
DUMBEST ECONOMIC STIMULUS PROGRAM EVER! BY A LOT!
I think this is free money, so even the dirt bags that don’t make enough to pay taxes are still going ot get more money then they contribute.
@joeblevins: RTF stimulus package before you speak. You thought wrong. Thanks.
I have to agree that it is a dumb stimulus package.
The majority of people will NOT buy anything with the money. Instead, they will pay off their bills with it (mortgage, credit card, utility, college tuition). So, in the end, the banks get the money. How ironic. A few people might spend it, but for those that do, it simply means that they already have enough money to play with as is.
You see, this will not work. It would work if everyone took the money and spent it, but that is not going to happen. If you want to fix the economy, its a very simple thing:
1) Everyone who is here illegally, deport them
2) Heavily fine business who employ illegals
3) Heavily tax/ apply higher tariffs to business’ who close up shop here in the USA and move overseas where labor is $5/day
he problem with the economy is that there are not enough good paying jobs. All of those have been shipped overseas. The only opportunities for people now is the low-paying service industry jobs.
I’m gonna buy me a hammock!!!
@joeblevins: “Don’t make enough to pay taxes” = “dirtbag”?
I weep for your soul.
@smitty1123:
The good thing is that the more time the government spends pissing around with MLB and Roger Clemens, the less time they have to spend money!
@Erwos: He didn’t say that the cash was trickle-down, only that this stimulus was necessitated because trickle-down wasn’t working.
Try reading the post before criticizing. ^_^
@stinkingbob:
Repayment of personal debt is good for the economy because that capital that goes back to the banks becomes available for business expansion. Also, when you lessen your personal debt, you can use the money you would have been paying in interest for better purposes.
Deporting all illegal aliens isn’t realistic. Also, the whole illegal immigration issue isn’t politically popular, so don’t count on too much being done about it. The issue is probably about neutral in terms of the economy anyway (not that makes it OK).
@Beerad: Don’t weep for a soul joeblevins obviously doesn’t have.
@stinkingbob: There’s plenty of evidence that illegal aliens are rather good for the economy. They work hard in jobs other people are too lazy to do and spend at least some of their money in local businesses. There are a number of news reports of towns which enacted anti illegal alien legislation having their local economy die as all the customers ran off.
@stinkingbob
I agree with your opinion of the immigrant problem in the U.S.
However, Companies don’t offshore the good paying jobs, they offshore the jobs that Americans are too stupid and lazy to perform. If we tax these companies that are outsourcing labor, where do you think that money will come from? Those costs will be passed back to us. If someone wants a higher paying job; work harder, educate yourself, and quit whining.
I work for a major outsourcer, and I am always amazed at the universal vehemence people have for offshoring work.
@ClayS: Agree RE: repaying debt. it’s always a good thing.
Also agree that deportation isn’t realistic. However, they shouldn’t be here… I have a plan for dealing with illegal aliens (no, it doesn’t involve shooting them): Give them an incentive to go home, and invite them back. I have resigned myself that we probably do need their labor, maybe not as much as we actually employ them, but at least to an extent.
So, here is my proposal:
1) Create a guest worker program. Limit work stints in the US to 2 years in length.
2) Provide a mechanism for mexicans to apply for their two year periods. Caveats: They MUST apply at a US embassy (or some sort of field office) in person IN MEXICO. If there are more applicants than job openings then create a lottery system.
3) Deport illegals as we find them (as we should be doing now). If you are caught in the US illegally, you forfeit any possiblity of getting a work permit in the US in the future.
4) Allow illegals to return to Mexico over existing legal border crossings, no questions asked… so they don’t have to go home over the desert. Again, they must return home to apply for the program.
5) Pay them minimum wage, and charge taxes on their wages, including Social Security taxes (but not make them eligible for Social Security when they retire/become disabled (hey, we have to pay for Social Security anyway, let them help).
6) They would not be eligible for welfare, food stamps, government services, etc. with the exception of public education of their children IN ENGLISH, considering that they are paying property taxes (indirectly, through rent to landlords).
7) While putting this program together, BUILD THAT DAMN FENCE. Not a virtual fence, not a pretend fence, but a double fence with an access road in between. Hell, we could even employ our guest workers to build it.
@sir_eccles: which is why I am not opposed to a formal, documented guest worker program. With limits.
i thought this was pretty much an advance on your refund when you do your taxes in 2009 for the 2008 year??
@AD8BC: Why not just register them and make a new tax that has no SS benefits and a flat 50% tax. Deport all unregistered.
Simple, real Americans would be making more money in the same job, you wouldn’t have to try deporting 20 million people, and they would all be registered. It would make coming to work in America less appealing then before but to bad enough where people would not register, it would add to the economy and would not burden SS.
@stinkingbob: I’m not what good paying jobs you’re talking about. The only good paying jobs i’ve seen being offshored is in the IT sector, and not many people can do the job.
On immigration – I find it interesting that, since Spain instituted a liberal immigration policy, their economy has started doing a lot better. Maybe part of our problem is spending so much money trying to stymie a river with a yardstick – it seems sort of like a bottomless pit we’ll just keep throwing money into, insisting that something will work…. (deja vu US drug policy)
Just google “spain immigration economy” for a number of reports and articles to come up.
@camille_javal: The problem isnt the illegal immigrants per se. Its not even completely the extra drain many of them can cause on local infrastructure (education, medical, spanish interpreters) though thats part of it. Its also that they are sending their income out of the country. If you have 5 million workers each sending $200 a month out of the country thats suddenly a Billion dollars a month not spent in this country. Thats a big impact on the economy.
@Erwos: i think his point is that if trickle-down worked so well, the gov’t wouldn’t have to subsidize it by cutting everyone welfare checks.
To Clays:
“Repayment of personal debt is good for the economy because that capital that goes back to the banks becomes available for business expansion.”
We are partly in a recession because of the banks and their terrible lending practices/buying up of debt from 3rd party lenders. Banks thought this was an easy way to get free money, but it screwed the country cuz so many people were given loans that the lender/bank knew they could not repay.
2) There is no conclusive report that illegal immigration is good for the country. This is rhetoric that pro-illegals put up. Know, when I say illegal, please don’t think solely Mexicans. There are illegal Chinese, Canadians, Filipinos, Cubans, etc that are living here.
Now, your comment about Illegals doing jobs that lazy Americans don’t want to do is bull. You should be shot.
This kind of thinking is bad for the USA. You see, employers are paying below minimum wages to illegals. So, when an American applies for the same job, who do you think will get hired? The illegal. Now, imagine that you have nothing but illegals working at say, a janitorial company. It may seem like no American wants the job, but infact they do, its just that the company would rather hire cheap, un-taxed labor.
Expect a lot of mail theft to occur in the near future…
@camille_javal:
Spain has not experienced what the USA has experienced, soyou can’t compare the 2. I bet you that if 12 million illegals were going into spain annually sucking up jobs from Spanish citizens, that liberal policy of theirs would change instantly. I wonder if Spain has to give illegals free healthcare and education? Do they give them free housing? If so, then I am going to move to Spain as an illegal and let the Spanish government take care of me!
“I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!!!”
Keep in mind that this money is simply an advance against your next years return.
Hey Ben, I want a delete function for any comments I make.
I see you addressed this in an early post.
You have to do the truffle shuffle before you get your rebate.
@AD8BC:
Here is a plan that will work:
1)Close the borders. Don’t allow immigration into this country until we can get our economic problem worked out.
The USA does not have enough jobs for all the people living here legally
2)Deport all illegals. It’s easy to do. And I don’t mean checking everyone’s ID that matches a profile. Simple things like a traffic stop, employers veryfing SS numbers with ICE, etc
3)When the USA has its economy under control, we can open the borders, but ONLY to people who have a skill that can contribute to the well-being of the USA.
@stinkingbob: you really have no idea about this stuff do you? do you know how the united states became an economic powerhouse? immigrants. they mined our coal, built our railroads, worked in our textile mills, stoked the coke fires, & built the skyscrapers that stand as testament to our power.
blaming others less fortunate than you for the troubles you experience is simple ignorance. an entire city of illegal immigrants drains this economy far less than a single corporation that moves their production facilities abroad so that the executive staff & board of directors can pocket 1/2 billion dollars in bonuses.
@stinkingbob:
The job market isn’t like some giant game of musical chairs where there is a fixed amount of jobs. An immigrant with a job does not mean one less job for citizens; by that logic, Virginia (where I live) should bar anyone from Maryland from working in here, since obviously that means less jobs for Virginians.
Read a book.
Sweet. Will be relaxing soon.