No Tax Rebate for Foreigners...or Their Spouses

Full Disclosure: I have a personal interest in this one as it directly affects my sister and her Ghanaian husband. They've been married for three and a half years and have two kids. While they wait for the interminable process of immigration to play out my brother-in-law works hard at three, yes three, jobs. He works seven days a week, all hours of the day and never complains. In fact he never seems to stop smiling. My sister works a full time job and they are raising four wonderful kids.

But for some reason the IRS decided that my brother-in-law doesn't deserve the stimulus/rebate check. Why, exactly, that is I can't fathom. It seems that it would be rather easy to check the records and see that he's worked steadily and contributed more than his fair share to society not to mention the tax coffers and deserves the rebate just as much as anyone.

But to add injury to injury it's now come out that my sister will likely be excluded from the payoff as well. I really don't know if they file jointly or not but if they do then neither one will receive their check.

Interestingly one of the groups of US citizens this greatly affects is members of the military who married foreign nationals while stationed abroad. While individuals in the government like to trumpet their support for the troops this is yet another example of policy saying otherwise.

Where's My Rebate Check?!?

As I'm sure is the case with many other tax blogs, we've been getting a lot of hits about the rebate / stimulus checks. Last week the President announced that taxpayers would start getting their money this week but many are still looking for definite dates.

The IRS has published a couple of pages over at IRS.gov that should prove very useful in answering taxpayers' questions. First check out the Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator where you can calculator how much you can expect. As the site points out, this is an estimate but it is helpful.

Once you've determined if you can expect a check you can visit the Stimulus Payment Schedule page. This shows the schedule for payments and direct deposits for taxpayers whose returns were processed by April 15.

Direct Deposit

• If your last two SSN digits are: 00 through 20 then payments will be transmitted no later than: May 2


• If your last two SSN digits are:21 through 75 then payments will be transmitted no later than: May 9


• If your last two SSN digits are:76 through 99 then payments will be transmitted no later than: May 16

Paper Checks

• If your last two SSN digits are: 00 through 09 then payments will be transmitted no later than: May 16


• If your last two SSN digits are: 10 through 18 then payments will be transmitted no later than: May 23


• If your last two SSN digits are: 19 through 25 then payments will be transmitted no later than: May 30


• If your last two SSN digits are: 26 through 38 then payments will be transmitted no later than: June 6


• If your last two SSN digits are: 39 through 51 then payments will be transmitted no later than: June 13


• If your last two SSN digits are: 52 through 63 then payments will be transmitted no later than: June 20


• If your last two SSN digits are: 64 through 75 then payments will be transmitted no later than: June 27


• If your last two SSN digits are: 76 through 87 then payments will be transmitted no later than: July 4


• If your last two SSN digits are: 88 through 99 then payments will be transmitted no later than: July 11

For more details check IRS.gov.

Where’s My Check?

The first rebate check from the IRS likely surprised more than a few recipients. Even with all the press it got, did anyone really expect it to come through? I mean the IRS actually giving back money?!? It just didn’t add up.

But this time around is different. History proves that it can really happen and now that we’ve heard more than a few times from Washington to expect a check this year people are asking questions. They are starting to wonder exactly when their check will come, what they can do to make it come faster and how they can make sure that they are eligible.

Trust me; IRSProblemsResolved knows that these are the questions that people are asking because they’re asking us these questions. Fielding these queries has become a pretty regular occurrence here at the office.

So, it’s not with a little relief that I can now report that the IRS has set up a special phone number that taxpayers can call with questions about the 2008 stimulus package checks. The IRS announced that people can call (866) 234-2942 with questions about their checks. There is also information available at IRS.gov.

Other problems with the IRS like back taxes, threats of levies, wage garnishment, etc. are where we shine. If you’re facing these sorts of issues or have other problems with the IRS we’d be glad to talk to you about them. Contact us with your IRS questions here.

Love Letter from the IRS

I don’t know about you but whenever I go to the mailbox and see that I’ve received mail from the IRS my first thought is, “Great, what now?” My second thought is, “How much is it going to cost this time?” The answer to both of those questions is rarely good.

Well, that’s not necessarily going to be the case in the next few weeks. The IRS is sending out millions of letter to US taxpayers. These particular letters will be explaining when and how we can receive our chunk of the stimulus package.