Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The IRS Announces the Economic Stimulus Payment Schedule.

Whether people are calling them Economic Stimulus Payments, tax rebates, tax refunds, or whatever, the fact is, the IRS will start sending them out soon. If you qualify, your stimulus payment should be deposited into your account or mailed to you between May 2 and July 11. (Click here to read a blog post on whether you qualify.) The deposit/mailing schedule is outlined in the image below.

If you have already filed and told the IRS to direct deposit any refund into your bank account, you should expect that the stimulus payment will be deposited between May 2 and May 16. If you filed and told the IRS to mail the refund to you, it could be as late as July 11 that the IRS mails the payment. The message? When you file your tax return, tell the IRS to direct deposit your refund. That should get the stimulus payment to you sooner.

The payment schedule depends on the last two digits of your Social Security Number. The lower that number, the sooner you will get the payment. This is the same way that the government sent out the rebate checks last time. Maybe sometime they’ll go in reverse numerical order.

A caveat on these payments, however, is that if you owe back taxes, delinquent student loans or child support, don’t expect a stimulus payment. The IRS will apply the stimulus payment against these outstanding debts. Also, if the IRS has trouble processing your return (for whatever reason) your stimulus payment will be delayed. For this reason, make sure that your return is correct. Don’t inadvertently delay your payment by transposing figures in your child’s Social Security Number.

If you are interested in more information, you can check out the podcast that the IRS prepared on the Economic Stimulus Payments by clicking here.

The IRS has also created a handy on-line calculator to help those who have filed returns, determine the amount of their stimulus payment. The calculator can be found by clicking here.





No comments: