You Must File 2007 Federal Tax Return To Get Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate

By Pinyo, on March 14, 2008

On my way to work this morning, the news was talking about the economic stimulus tax rebate check. In short, the Treasury will begin sending economic stimulus payments to more than 130 million households starting in May.

Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Payment
Adopted from Economic Stimulus Payment: Marketing Products for Partners

To receive this tax rebate, there are three key requirements:

You must have a valid Social Security number,
You must have at least $3,000 of income in 2007, and
You must file a 2007 federal tax return

File Your Federal Tax Return For Free

If you haven’t done it already, you still have about a month left to file your federal tax return. Remember, you must file even if you usually don’t to get this tax rebate check*. There are a couple of free federal income tax return programs that you can use:

* From the IRS web site: “…retirees, disabled veterans and low-wage workers who usually are exempt from filing a tax return must do so this year in order to receive a stimulus payment.”

How Much Tax Rebate Are You Getting?

While the actual rule is a bit more complicated, it boils down to this: $300-600 for each eligible adult, and $600-$1,200 for a married couple, plus $300 for each eligible child younger than 17 (up to two children). For example:

$300-$600 for a single person
$600-$1,200 for a married couple
+$300 for one qualified child
+$600 for two or more qualified children

So the maximum you can get is $1,800 and the least is $300. Here is a handy economic stimulus tax rebate calculator from Kiplinger.

What Should You Do With The Tax Rebate Check?

That’s really up to you, but here are my top three recommendations:

Pay off your high interest debt, such as credit card debts
Start an emergency fund. A good place to keep it in a high yield savings account — e.g., WTDirect Savings Account, ING, eTrade, etc.
Fund your traditional or Roth IRA. In 2008, the maximum contribution limit for Roth and traditional IRAs are $5,000.

Watch Out For Scams

Be wary of anyone that contact you via telephone, email, or mail about tax rebate. All you need to do is meet the three requirements above and nothing else. The IRS will automatically send you a tax rebate check if you satisfy all three conditions.

You can find more information on the official IRS Economic Stimulus Payments Information Center web page.

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Pinyo is the brain behind Moolanomy personal finance blog and a few other web sites. If you like this article, please subscribe for free daily email updates.

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11 Comments

hasam
March 14, 2008, 8:34

This is very old news… are you just now finding out about this tax rebate stuff??
Pinyo
March 14, 2008, 9:10

Not at all. I wrote about this on January 25th: http://www.moolanomy.com/423/f.....n-package/

There was an update from the IRS on March 10th — i.e., payment date information — so I thought it’s worthwhile to reemphasize the requirements
Kathryn
March 14, 2008, 9:27

Glad you pointed out the part about scams … whenever there are things going on like this that the general public basically knows about but doesn’t really understand the details of, the door is opened to scammers. Making sure that consumers are aware of that and protecting themselves is an important service. Thanks!
JT
March 14, 2008, 15:16

I just filed for my parents who have retired and have not filed for years. In fact, according to the info I gathered from CNN money site, it is best to print “stimulus payment”, on top of the 1040 form.

Wondering if you need to file the state portion of it (540)? I would assume not since this stimulus payment is coming from Federal, so I think filing the 1040 will be fine.
Mike S
March 14, 2008, 16:42

Are you sure the amounts are correct? I was under the assumption that a married couple w/ two children would receive $1,800 (your post indicates $1,200). Of course I could be be wrong…
Pinyo
March 14, 2008, 17:55

@Kathryn — Yes, I thought that was important to point out. Aside from tax preparation costs, you shouldn’t have to pay anyone or sign anything to get this rebate payment.

@JT – According to the IRS web site, Federal tax return is the only requirement.

@Mike – I believe you are correct. I think I misinterpret the information. Here’s a quote from the IRS web site:

“6) Married couple with two children, AGI is $80,000, federal income tax liability before child tax credit exceeds $1,200.
Rebate is $1,200
Qualifying child credit is $600
TOTAL is $1,800″

source: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/ar.....64,00.html

I updated my article for accuracy. Thank you for pointing it out.
jerod
March 17, 2008, 14:08

OK i’m new to all of this. Will the check come in the mail? Great post by the way!
Pinyo
March 18, 2008, 6:35

@jerod – According to the IRS web site, yes.
Adfecto
March 18, 2008, 14:54

It looks like May 9 2008 I’ll be cutting $1,200 of my credit card debt. Stimulate my debt snowball thank you very much…
Pinyo
March 18, 2008, 15:53

That good Adfecto. I am planning to pay off some debt and invest the remainder in Roth IRAs.
davis, j
November 17, 2008, 22:00

I retired in 2004 we file jointly .. i went to the revenue office cuz we haven’t gotten anything as of yet..only to find out we don’t qualify .. i asked the the lady to explain why we don’t qualify she said something to the effect everything zerod out ..which left me even more confused we only recieve one income that’s comes in once a month … so i don’t understand why we don’t qualify .. taxes are deducted from the retirement . … stimulus check ? thought it was for everyone …. i still don’t understand who is qualified i have asked and i didn’t get an answer that am safisfied with… can someone explain it to me plzzzzzzz.
sincerely , retired navy

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