Posts tagged as:

refunds

Free Money from the Government!

February 19, 2008 · 8 comments

I’ve received a number of questions over the past few days about the tax rebates slated to be mailed out in May.

Most of the questions focus on the question of where the rebates come from and how they affect your liability or refund for 2007. The short answer is that the rebates should not affect your liability or refund for 2007.

For more information about tax liabilities and the rebate, see my prior post on the subject.

With respect to refunds, the amount of your 2007 refund will not affect your tax rebate. However, how you choose to accept your 2007 refund might accept the manner in which you receive your 2007 rebate; click here for more information on direct deposit and your rebate.

All of that said, this is free money. Okay, nothing is free. My children (and yours) will pay for it eventually. But for now, it really doesn’t affect your taxes – it is not an advance on your refund for 2008 (as the checks for 2001 were).

This check is a handout from the government. You will not report the amount of your tax rebate on your tax return for 2007 or for 2008. It will not increase or decrease the amount of your liability or your refund. Once you get the check, Congress hopes that you simply put it back into the economy. And that’s the end of it – for now.

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Looking for Spending Money for the Holidays?

November 19, 2007 · 0 comments

Maybe the Internal Revenue Service has some of your cash!

The IRS is looking for 115,478 taxpayers who are due refund checks worthabout $110 million after the checks were returned as undeliverable. Yep, that averages out to nearly $1000 a pop.

If you are expecting a refund and have not received one for the 2006 tax year, you can check the status by phone (1.800.829.1954) or online (www.irs.gov). You must be prepared to provide your Social Security number, filing status and amount of refund.

Why all the undeliverable returns? A refund check is normally returned as undeliverable when a taxpayer moves without updating his or her address with either the U.S. Postal Service or the IRS. You can update your address by completing form 8822, available for download here as a pdf.

Of course, if you sign up for Direct Deposit when you complete your returns, you can avoid all of the misdelivered mail issues all together. Direct Deposit is available for filers of both paper and electronic returns.

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