Bernanke Hopes for 2009 Tax Stimulus

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke endorsed the possibility of another tax rebate sometime in 2009. Again, the point of this rebate is to stimulate the economy by giving cash to the people to start spending. According to the White House, they are high on the idea of another stimulus package in addition to the $700 billion dollar bail out plan passed a few weeks ago.

Details are still scarce as to when the rebate will be passed as well as how much we will all see in our pockets. Democrats and Republicans jointly think this is a good idea, primarily since this is election season I’m sure. I guess the real question is how are we going to pay for all of this. The government seems to be doling out money like it grows on trees. We are still paying for an expensive war, paying golden parachutes to executives that caused the economy to crash in the first place, as well as carrying a huge national debt. Kind of funny to think that if I ran my finances like this, my home would be in forclosure which is the same reason we are in this mess.

It remains to be seen if this 2009 tax stimulus rebate will do anything to jump start the economy. The last tax rebate has not shown that it did much to help. I can tell you right now that if I receive anything from it, it will be going straight into the bank into my emergency fund. Besides, you never know when they will be asking for it back in the form of a tax increase later!

As more details appear about this new proposed rebate, I will be posting about them here. So keep checking back, or sign up for email updates in the upper left corner of the site.

2009 Tax Stimulus Rebate a Reality?

I have a little update on anther 2009 Tax Stimulus Rebate. As part of the multi trillion dollar bail out that the government is putting together to deal with mortgage / housing crisis, lawmakers have proposed building in another Tax Stimulus Rebate to help spur consumer spending. They are referring to this as Son of Stimulus. There is still no final decision or details as to how much the rebate would give each of us, but as details emerge I will let you know.

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In other tax rebate related talk, Barack Obama, as part of his campaigning, is proposing that Americans receive another tax rebate. This time you would see $1000 to help offset the rising price of gasoline and to spur spending. How will this be paid for you ask? His idea is to get it from a tax on the oil company profits. Obviously since Barack is using this as a campaign tactic this could take months even if he takes office in January. I have a feeling we will see something sooner from Bush to give the republican campaign a little shot in the arm.

Will the 2009 Tax Stimulus Rebate be a reality? Only time will tell, but at the rate the economy is sinking I am definitely optimistic.

Another Tax Stimulus Rebate?

There are rumblings that there will be another tax rebate offered to Americans in 2009. I have heard the rumors but didn’t hear anything concrete until now. I am going to refer to this as the 2009 tax stimulus rebate as to not confuse this with the current rebate that is currently is progress.

This week, Congress will be reviewing a proposal that would inject $50 billion into the US economy. This proposal would mainly benefit middle class citizens similiar to the last rebate. According to the bill on the table, there will also be funds available for an increase in food stamps benefits, infrastructure funding, increased unemployment benefits as well as home heating old assistance for lower income familes.

As this bill is purely undergoing review there are no details on how much indivuidals and families will receive. The early rumbling that I hear is that the rebate will occur sometime in early 2009 if approved. I will be updating this site regularly with more information on the 2009 tax rebate as it comes available, so keep checking back.

Reasons Your 2008 Tax Rebate Might Be Delayed

Are you asking yourself “I was supposed to get my tax rebate already but haven’t! Where is it?!?!?! As the majority of rebates have been transmitted by the IRS, we are starting to see a few reasons you may not have gotten it by the time you expected. Here are some that affect the most people:

1) If you used a 3rd party tax preparation company and received an advance on your rebate from them, you will most likely get a paper check from the Government for your rebate. This is because your tax return was sent to them to pay off your tax return loan. The rebate will go the same place.

2) If you owed money to the Federal Government for your 2007 taxes, and you paid it via direct debit, unless your software specifically asked you about direct deposit for the rebate, you will get a paper check, since the IRS did not get the account info that you wanted to direct deposit the rebate.

3)If you filed your 2007 tax return just before the April 15th deadline, it is possible that the IRS did not process your return prior to April 15th. If this is the case, you will receive your rebate via check. I have not seen an actual cut off date where if you submitted your tax return after that date your rebate might be delayed.

4)If you opted to pay your filing fees using the proceeds from your refund, you will receive your rebate in the form of a check. It is best to pay those fees with a credit card to keep them seperate from your rebate as this changes the way your tax return was sent to you which in turn affects your rebate.

If you think you are going to get your rebate via a check. Check out the 2008 Tax Stimulus Rebate Payout Schedule to see when you might receive your rebate.

You can also use the Rebate Status Tool to check the status of your rebate.

Where’s My Tax Rebate?

 As the electronic payouts for the rebate are complete, you may be asking your self “I was supposed to get mine via direct deposit, but didn’t, what’s up?”.

Well it seems that now more details are coming forward about the rebates. I have just found out that when you filed, if you elected to have your tax preparation fees taken out of your refund, rather then paying for them seperately, you will be receiving your rebate via a paper check, even though your refund was through direct deposit. Check the Payout Schedule to see when your check might arrive.

Another issue that has arose is that around 350,000 people were missing the $300 per child payment as part of their rebate. This was an error for people that used commercial tax preparation software such as TurboTax or TaxCut. The IRS will be issuing letters to those people to let them know of the error. Checks for the $300 per child will be issued in July to those affected.

Be sure to use the Rebate Status Tool to check the status of your rebate if you haven’t received it yet. Also, be sure to review your rebate and make sure it is the correct amount that you are expecting. With some of the glitches we have seen thus far, it is possible that more could be uncovered.

Avoid Stimulus Rebate Scams

So as usual, along with the good of the 2008 Rebate Stimulus, so comes the bad. Including those that want to swindle your money from you.

I have been reading about an email scam that looks similiar to the following:

Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as part of President Bush program to jumpstart the economy.

Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit before May 10th, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on May 10th, 2008 or later means that your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.

To access Economic Stimulus refund, please click here

This is a ploy to get you to enter your bank account info so that some one can use that information to start debiting money out of your account. Don’t ever enter personal information through anything that you have received via email. Even if the link in the email looks correct.

Always enter the url by hand into the browser, such as www.irs.gov as an example. These scammers wouldn’t still be doing scams like this if people weren’t falling for it, so be smart and if you have questions about emails that you get, contact the instution by phone first and verify that the email was valid.

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