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 Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:48 pm Subject: Rebates |
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Guess its a done deal.....
| Quote: | Bush hails tax-rebate deal as ‘robust’
Rebates for families, business tax cuts to boost the economy
The Associated Press
updated 12:16 p.m. PT, Thurs., Jan. 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders announced a deal with the White House Thursday on an economic stimulus package that would give most tax filers refunds of $600 to $1,200, and more if they have children.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would act on the agreement — hammered out in a week of intense negotiations with Republican Leader John A. Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — “at the earliest date, so that those rebate checks can be in the mail.”
President Bush is hailing the deal with congressional leaders on tax rebates and business tax cuts as "an effective, robust and temporary set of incentives" that will boost the U.S. economy.
The rebates, which would go to about 116 million families, had appeal for both Democrats and Republicans. Pelosi’s staff noted that they would include $28 billion in checks to 35 million working families who wouldn’t have been helped by Bush’s original proposal. Republicans, for their part, were pleased that the bulk of the rebates — more than 70 percent, according to an analysis by Congress’ Joint Tax Committee — would go to individuals who pay taxes.
Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child under the agreement. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don’t pay taxes would get $300 rebates.
The first rebate payments could begin going out in May, and most people could have them by July, Paulson said, noting that the IRS will already be overwhelmed processing 2007 tax returns. The rebates were expected to cost about $100 billion, and the package also includes close to $50 billion in business tax cuts.
The package would allow businesses to immediately write off 50 percent of purchases of plants and other capital equipment and permit small businesses to write off additional purchases of equipment. A Republican-written provision to allow businesses suffering losses now to reclaim taxes previously paid was dropped.
Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits during a Wednesday meeting in exchange for gaining the rebates of at least $300 for almost everyone earning a paycheck, including those who make too little to pay income taxes.
“I can’t say that I’m totally pleased with the package, but I do know that it will help stimulate the economy. But if it does not, then there will be more to come,” Pelosi said.
Boehner said the agreement “was not easy for the two of us and our respective caucuses.”
“You know, many Americans believe that Washington is broken,” Boehner said. “But I think this agreement and I hope that this agreement will show the American people that we can fix it and will serve to move along other bipartisan agreements that we can have in the future.”
Paulson said he would work with the House and Senate to enact the package as soon as possible, because “speed is of the essence.”
The Treasury Department has already been talking to the IRS about getting the checks out “as quickly as possible, recognizing that the tax filing season is ongoing,” said Treasury spokesman Andrew DeSouza.
The rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose income exceeds $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, aides said. Individuals with incomes up to $87,000 and couples up to $174,000 would get partial rebates. The caps are higher for those with children.
The agreement left some lawmakers in both parties with a bitter taste, complaining that their leaders had sacrificed too much in the interest of striking a deal. Many senior Democrats were particularly upset that the package omitted the unemployment extension.
“I do not understand, and cannot accept, the resistance of President Bush and Republican leaders to including an extension of unemployment benefits for those who are without work through no fault of their own,” Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., the Ways and Means Committee chairman, said in a statement.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance Committee Chairman, said leaving out the unemployment extension was “a mistake,” as he announced plans to craft a separate stimulus package in the Senate starting next week.
Majority Leader Harry Reid said the goal is to send the package to the White House by Feb. 15 for President Bush’s signature, but he noted the Senate would likely try to add more spending to the package.
“I expect that the (Finance) Committee and other senators will work to improve the House package by adding funds for other initiatives that can boost the economy immediately, such as unemployment benefits, nutrition assistance, state relief and infrastructure investment,” Reid said in a statement.
Bush has supported larger rebates of $800-$1,600, but his plan would have left out 30 million working households who earn paychecks but don’t make enough to pay income tax, according to calculations by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. An additional 19 million households would receive only partial rebates under Bush’s initial proposal.
To address the mortgage crisis, the package also raises the limits on Federal Housing Administration loans and home mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase to as high as $725,000 in high-cost areas. Those are considerable boosts over the current FHA limit of $362,000 and the $417,000 cap for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s loan purchases.
After a key Wednesday night meeting in which the parameters of an agreement were reached, Pelosi and Boehner spoke again Thursday to cement the accord.
In the talks, Pelosi pressed to make sure tax relief would find its way into the hands of lower-income earners while Boehner pushed to include upper middle-class couples, according to congressional aides.
The package was drawing fire from liberal activists and labor unions upset that proposals to extend unemployment insurance and boost food stamps had been dropped. Many Democratic lawmakers had assumed those proposals would make it into the package, and critics of the deal said those ideas could pump money into the economy more quickly than tax rebate checks that won’t be delivered until June.
Democrats wanted to extend unemployment benefits for people whose 26 weeks of benefits have run out, but Republicans resisted.
Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, were likely to be restless over tax rebates going to those without income tax liability.
Democratic aides said greater GOP flexibility over giving relief to poor families with children — who would not have been eligible under Bush’s original tax rebate proposal — was the catalyst that moved the talks forward. |
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volleyballmom
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:50 pm Subject: |
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Great post, and great news.
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kashzan
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:03 pm Subject: |
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Yeah that will cut the money I owe to the IRS by 5 percent. The tax I owe from when my wife and I were both receiving unemployment and could not pay it. Why don't they stop taxing unemployment checks! If I sound a little bitter it is because I am!
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frogpatch
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:05 pm Subject: |
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Sounds Jimmy Carteresque to me!
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frogpatch
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:11 pm Subject: |
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what about people who receive disability (SSDI)? Do we get anything?
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ladybug
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:36 pm Subject: |
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That is a good question ladybug...I am not sure.
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volleyballmom
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:55 pm Subject: |
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my husband told me this afternoon that "maybe he will give me 1/2 of his" for my trip to AZ but that is next month and from what I have read those checks aren't going out until June right?
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ladybug
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:58 pm Subject: |
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thats how its looking...may/june is the early expectation.
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volleyballmom
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:59 pm Subject: |
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Looks like they go out in July, thats what I read earlier today.
Also it seems they up'd it. Households with kids were supposed tojust get $1600, but now households get $1200 and $300 for each kid. Weeee $1800 for us.
I never did see a check back in 2003 with the child tax credit, so I am not getting too hopeful on seeing this check
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tiffer0220
Joined: 14 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:08 pm Subject: |
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| Quote: | Looks like they go out in July, thats what I read earlier today.
Also it seems they up'd it. Households with kids were supposed tojust get $1600, but now households get $1200 and $300 for each kid. Weeee $1800 for us.
I never did see a check back in 2003 with the child tax credit, so I am not getting too hopeful on seeing this check |
Sure you never saw a check in 2003, what you meant is I probably never saw it 
How much trouble do you think we'd get in if we claim the 3 dogs and two cats as children? If anyone asks it was your idea.
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LoneGunman
Joined: 14 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:37 am Subject: |
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Well, they are our children...
The check was probably stolen out of the mailbox, along with the car title, and the kids birthday cards... Remember???
And why the hell am I responding to you on here? LOL
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Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:48 am Subject: |
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Sorry that was me...
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tiffer0220
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| Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:50 am Subject: |
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Hmmm...I'm like you Frogpatch I'll never see the check..but a letter from the IRS saying my tax bill has gone down..will be great! I guess that's one way to spent it...but I don't think that will stimulate the economy.
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laura19544
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| Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:01 am Subject: |
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this is info i have received....
WASHINGTON (AP) - Most taxpayers could expect a rebate of up to $600 starting in mid-May under the economic aid plan set to go through Congress within weeks.
Couples could get twice as much, with even more for most families with children. All that, however, depends on smooth sailing at the Internal Revenue Service, and the agency already is up to its eyeballs in filings and refunds.
The Treasury Department says that despite the strains of tax filing season, the IRS will be able to begin delivering the payments within 60 days after President Bush signs the plan into law, and complete the process in approximately 10 weeks, possibly sooner. The payments would come separately from regular tax refunds.
"The IRS has already begun trying to prepare for this," said Andrew DeSouza, a Treasury spokesman. "They'll be ready to go."
But figuring out if you qualify - and for how much - can be complicated, thanks to confusing rules designed to get the money to middle-income workers and ensure it also benefits low-income people who are most likely to spend the cash.
"Almost everyone who earns income will receive some benefit," said Douglas W. Elmendorf, an analyst at the Brookings Institution. "The idea is to target the money on the people who will spend a large share of it, and to target it on people who are likely to be hurt by an economic downturn."
People who do not make enough to pay taxes but had at least $3,000 in earned income would get $300. Those earning less than that would be disqualified, as would the wealthiest. Older people living solely off Social Security checks would not get the rebate.
Individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000 and couples with income exceeding $150,000 would get smaller checks. Contributions to individual retirement accounts, 401(k) retirement accounts and health savings accounts would not count toward the limits.
About three-quarters of those eligible for the checks are working people. About one-quarter would qualify solely through pension or interest income, such as retirees or people who are unemployed. Eligible people would get at least $300.
For middle-class people, the rebates are fairly straightforward. Most individuals would get a $600 rebate, couples would get $1,200, and those amounts would rise with the size of their families. High- and low-income people, however, would get only a partial benefit.
People with income less than $75,000 would get a rebate equal to the taxes they paid in 2007, up to $600. Couples with income less than $150,000 could get up to $1,200. Those who earned more than $3,000 but owed little or no taxes would get a flat $300, or $600 per couple.
So a low-income family of four - with $35,000 in income and virtually no tax liability - would get $1,200. That includes the flat $600 per couple and $300 for each child.
A single person earning minimum wage would receive the lower rebate, $300.
A single parent of two with income of $38,000 and a tax bill of $433 would get $1,033 - a $433 tax rebate plus $300 per child.
To focus the payments on middle-class people, the plan includes rules that reduce the rebates for those with higher incomes. For each $1,000 over the limit, the payment goes down by $50.
That means that while a family of four with income of $95,000 would get $1,800 - $1,200 for the couple and $300 for each child - a family of four with income of $160,000 would get less, and the same family making $200,000 would get nothing.
Income of $160,000 would put a family $10,000 above the income threshold, reducing the benefit by $500 for a rebate of $1,300. The wealthier family, which falls $50,000 above the threshold, would see its rebate vanish under the formula.
Similarly, a single person with no children who had $16,000 in income would get $600, while the same person making $85,000 - $10,000 above the limit - would get just $100.
People would not have to work to receive a rebate. A retired couple owing $4,000 in taxes would get the full $1,200; if they owed no taxes, they would receive only half that. If the couple earned less than $3,000, however, they would be ineligible. That includes 20 million older people whose only income is their Social Security checks.
The plan would allow people who do not qualify for a rebate this year to get one in the spring of 2009 if they become eligible based on their income level or tax liability in 2008. That has been a standard feature of past rebates, although it does nothing to stimulate the economy.
Some 40 million people who file their tax returns online could start getting payments by direct deposit in May. Congressional tax analysts say the government can send out up to 9 million paper checks a week. The IRS will have to reprogram its computers to calculate who gets the rebate and how much they will receive.
"They sort of learned how to do this last time," said Jason Furman, a Brookings economist, referring to the last round of rebates in 2001.
"It's definitely complicated if you're trying to understand it, but it's not actually going to be complicated for people because they're going to get a check from the IRS without having to fill out a single form."
Still, the agency is already working overtime processing tax returns, and rebates will have to take a back seat come April, when it will be overwhelmed in the run-up to Tax Day.
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socksfullofrocks
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| Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:12 pm Subject: |
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I didn't see a check in 2003 but it wouldn't suprise me if it had been cashed. If we get one this year it will be a nice blessing. It will go to the down payment for a house.
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FYI
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