My stimulus check is...

[Anonymous]

From what I understand, for married filing jointly (like me), it's one check, sent on a schedule determined by the last two numbers of the SSN of the person who is listed first on the return.

Which really sucks for us; if the accountant had listed me first, we would have gotten the check weeks earlier than we probably will since they listed him first.

-MsMS

[Anonymous]

WoooHoooo!!  Nothing like being stimulated first thing in the morning to make your whole day just that much better.

Yeap, its there! We were in the first wave and it cleared the bank at midnight last night.

[ineedcreditbad]

Guys/Gals,

Please make sure your stimulus check amount is correct. I just got mine and its short of $600 I called the IRS and this is what they said.

If you have a tax liability of Zero (meaning you didnt owe any money to the federal govt when you filed your 2007 taxes) and are filing joint and under 150K you would get the following

600 for filing as joint

300 per kid

Now if everything was the same and you had owed money to the federal government then you would get

1200 for filing joint

300 per kid

Ed

[Anonymous]

Well there was a little bit left off of what they told you. I am sure that they are being bombarded by calls today.

If filing jointly then it is $600 per adult

and $300 per child.

My check has been deposited into my account and I have 2 Children and the amount was $1800.

You may have been misunderstood on the phone?

Message Edited by gettintherequick on 05-02-2008 11:15 AM

[Anonymous]

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ineedcreditbad wrote:

Now if everything was the same and you had owed money to the federal government then you would get

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Just to avoid potential confusion, it's not a question of whether you owed money at the time you filed your taxes.  It's a question of zero tax liability for the year vs. having paid some amount of taxes, which is an entirely different matter from whether you owed money or got a refund.

[Anonymous]

WTF??

So basically, if you loan the govt your money by paying extra tax all year long, you get penalized by $600??  And if you underpay taxes, and then have to pay more at the end, you get rewarded??

Can someone please explain the logic there??

In any case, if we get the $1200 for us and another $600 for our 2 kids, we're buying a new big screen.  If they screw us, and only give us $600 for us and $600 for the kids, we can't afford the TV, so we might as well pay off credit cards! 

I guess their intention for us to spend it will backfire if they don't give us enough.

Either way, we're at the very end of the schedule.  Hubby and I are -93 and -94, and since we did direct deposit into 2 different accounts, we haveto wait for a check...... 

[ineedcreditbad]

No I heard her correctly and she said if had Zero tax liability you will get $600 for joint not $600 per person and 300 per child. I just spoke to couple of my other friends and they were shortchanged as well as they had zero liability.

[Anonymous]

IF she said if you had zero tax liability that is exactly what Cheddar said.. Meaning if you owed nothing at all and got back everything you paid in you get the lesser amount.

If they kept anything of what you paid in then you get the bigger amount.

[Anonymous]

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LEEHI wrote:

WTF??

So basically, if you loan the govt your money by paying extra tax all year long, you get penalized by $600??  And if you underpay taxes, and then have to pay more at the end, you get rewarded??

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I knew this confusion would happen.  See my post above, which was an attempt to head this off at the pass.

Again, having zero tax liability has nothing to do with whether you received a refund or owed money when you filed.  It has to do with whether your total tax liability for the year was $0 or not, regardless of whether you paid for it by payroll deduction and then got a refund or whether you paid for it with one big check at the end of the year.

[ineedcreditbad]

I just found this on the website of the irs here is the link http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=181991,00.html

Q. I received a stimulus payment and I want to verify that it is correct. How do I figure the payment, myself?

A. The easiest way to figure the amount is to use the Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator on this Web site. Essentially, there are two parts to the stimulus payment: a basic amount based on tax liability, filing status or other qualifying income, if there is no tax liability, and an additional amount based on whether a qualifying child is reported on the return.

Basic Amount of Payment: If you had a net income tax liability for 2007, you will generally receive a payment, unless you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return, had higher income or do not have a valid Social Security number.

Your net income tax liability is one of the following:

• On Form 1040, the amount shown on Line 57 plus the amount on Line 52;
• On Form 1040A, the amount shown on Line 35 plus the amount on Line 32; or
• On Form 1040EZ, the amount on Line 10.

NOTE: Don’t be confused. Net income tax liability is not the same as the amount of tax withheld from your pay, the amount of your refund or the balance due on your return.

Your stimulus payment is equal to your net income tax liability, but no more than $600, if you are single, or $1,200, if you are married filing a joint return.

If you had no net income tax liability for 2007, you are usually getting a minimum payment of $300, if you are single, or $600, if you are married filing jointly, as long as you had qualifying income of at least $3,000 in 2007. To figure your qualifying income, add together the following amounts:

• Wages that are reported on Form W-2.
• Net self-employment income that is taken into account in computing taxable income.
• Social Security benefits reported in box 5 of the 2007 Form SSA-1099 you received in January 2008. If you don’t have this form, you can estimate your annual benefit by multiplying your monthly benefit by the number of months (usually 12) you received benefits during 2007.
• Certain Railroad Retirement benefits reported in box 5 of the 2007 Form RRB-1099 you received in January 2008.
• Veterans’ benefits received in 2007, including veterans’ disability compensation and disability pension or survivors’ benefits received from the Department of Veterans Affairs. You can estimate your annual benefit by multiplying your monthly benefit by the number of months during 2007 you received benefits.
• Nontaxable combat pay if you chose to include it as earned income on your 2007 return.