IRS: We spent $42 million to tell you we're sending you a check soon.

That's right, the IRS is spending $42 million to tell you your rebate check is coming soon.

Meanwhile, Senator Chuck Schumer has one question: Why?

Don't worry about it, Chuck. It's not like we've got anything better to spend that money on.

This type of behavior is becoming the daily special.

Next up, the government spends $100 million on gold leafed toilet paper because Bush and Cheney are sensitive.

Save the economy! Give everyone a rebate to make interest only payments for one month with!

I am buying a "Buck Fush!" shirt with the money.

The thing that pisses me off is that they aren't "giving you money back" from previous tax payments, they are taking it out of next year's refund. This amounts to little more than a pay day loan.

In 2009 you will have to check the box that will ask if you received the 2008 refund. You have to pay it back. It is a government forced, interest free loan (from yourself to yourself) which has to be paid back in 2009 after the rascals have left the White House.

No kidding. Maybe buy a new Dell for the local VA, so veterans can actually get their disability checks on time.

Dude, you're getting PTSD!

Link?

Google much?

check it

This is just a cash advance against next year's tax refund.

Well, why not. The past keeps screwing the future anyway, this is just a shorter term screw.

Well that's not right, you should definitely be charging youself interest

Can you just refuse to cash it, and tick the box 'no' come tax time? If enough people did it, it might get a point across.

Even if people can do that, the chances of it happening are so highly unlikely as to not exist. First, the majority of people aren't going to do the research to find out what the reality is. Second, who doesn't cash a check from the government? And third, the majority of people have the foresight of a hummingbird for anything beyond their next meal, so why should they think ahead when they have cash now?

This whole thing is making me more depressed . . . moreso because I'll cash my check to: I have looked at my budget for the next year or so and I need it more now than I will next year

Why would you refuse it if you could spend a year making interest on it?

Well, let's be serious - how much is this cheque supposed to be? Maximum of $600 for single, $1200 for family? Invest that at the average current interest rate of jack shit, and you might end up with an extra $13 - $15 (assuming you get the maximum, doubled for the family). Wow. A possible $30. Or you can invest it in something a little riskier, in hopes of a higher return, and risk losing it all, since everyone knows that mutual funds and related products aren't meant to be a short term investment.

But this is all a moot point, because the people that would be getting the maximum amounts are the people that would more than likely need the money for day to day living, and wouldn't be able to invest it anyway.

I still fail to see why the President and the numerous Congressmen/women have been so self-congratulatory about this rebate. It's $600. For some people, that will maybe cover a month's worth of expenses. More than likely, it won't.

If you read further, it points out that this is an additional rebate that will not adjust next year's tax refund at all.

Best idea I have heard in a while.

And that you do not have to pay it back.

It won't adjust what it would have been if the stimulus package hadn't passed. People who don't receive the check because of a bad address or because it gets lost in the mail won't have to check that box and thus, their refund will be higher than those who had received the funds.

So in a way, it does "reduce" the refund but not from what it would have been normally. I can understand why people keep calling it a loan on their '08 refunds but it's a silly way to think about it.

Having said all that, I can't help but wonder if this idiotic mailing of notices to taxpayers about the money they are going to get in June isn't a way to try to get them spending more now, keeping in mind the check that's coming. If that's the case, I understand the idea but it still makes me feel queasy.

I got my notice a couple of days ago. I thought that was bizarre, since it looked to me like I'm not actually going to get a rebate. (And it doesn't actually clarify matters. It's not a "you're going to get this much money", it's "we might send you some money".)

Hey they're doing there part to keep the postal service busy, and the paper mills, ink producers,garbage men.

And even if I don't get it I'm still planning on buying a scooter to save on gas.

Good point. As if there is anyone who somehow hadn't heard about it already.

The thing that really irked me about mine is that the edges you're supposed to tear off to open it didn't tear cleanly at all. Forty-two million dollars and they can't perforate properly? Jesus Christ.

OK, I'm glad we cleared that up, because, believe it or not, I did Google it, and actually read and correctly interpreted the information given. I'm actually pretty good at lookin shit up on teh intratubes.