What are you going to do with your TAX REBATE?

Ok, since we've covered the "what are you doing with your tax refund" topic, let's turn to the upcoming Tax Rebate or Stimulus Payments that are coming out soon.

The IRS has recently updated their website with an actual calculator you can use to find out exactly how much you will be receiving, rather than guessing about it. All you need is your 2007 tax return - enter a few details, and you've got your answer. The only thing to remember is that if you have outstanding tax issues or money owed to the government, your rebate may be reduced by that amount.

There's also a new chart on the IRS website showing exactly when to expect your rebate. And an important thing to remember is that if you opted to have your tax refund direct deposited into your bank account when you filed your 2007 tax return, your rebate will come to you the same way. If you opted for a check to be mailed for your refund, you will also receive a check for your rebate.

If you are of the percentage that hasn't filed a tax return for some years (due to lack of taxable income), you will need to file a tax return to receive the rebate.

Soo..with all that said, what are your plans for the upcoming rebate payments?

As for me, I have the usual trip coming up in the summer to get my younger son to his dad for visitation in another state - so we're going to make a mini-vacation of it and hit a theme park, some nice beaches and maybe a few museums or points of interest along the way.

Mine will be gobbled up by the IRS for the back taxes I owe from when I was collecting unemployment several years ago. If they screw up and send it to me anyway I will probably use it to fly home with my wife so she can see her family after giving a portion to charity!

Pay down $600 worth of debt.

Well.. come to find out a few weeks ago I owe the IRS some money.. so I don't think I will be seeing anything and if I do I'm going to send it right back to them.

All very good ideas - and after discussing things with my older son today, I'm thinking part of my stimulus payment will be going to get him started on driver's training - remember the good ol' days when that was part of your education and was FREE? Not anymore...

I owe the IRS, but I am on a formal repayment plan. From what I read, I will get my check as long as the taxes arent delinquent. Alas, I will probably turn around and send it back to them


I paid $400 for my daughters drivers training here in CA. I do remember when it was free...that was nice!

Well, gas is $3.25 per gallon, but the bike gets about 52 mpg.......

let it never be said that our dear wulf is not, among other things, SMART.

Hey, I figure the pittance they'll be sending us [unless they change their minds] is good for about 4k miles. That's a week's vacation in the wind, on the cheap.

I agree...if you owe something..at least it was free money that you sent them to pay off debt...instead of stimulating economy..but people who owe IRS money didn't even get tax refunds in first place if I am not mistaken

Yeah, pretty much. OTOH, the refund amount gets taken off of what they owe the Infernal Revenue Sadists, so it's not a total wash.

I'm torn on what I'm doing with my check. The responsible thing for me to do is pay $600 off of my debts. That $600 is my monthly payment to my debt consolidation company and could mean one month early of getting out of debt. But the voices in my head are saying buy a PS3 or Wii. I don't know for sure what I'm doing yet.

I am so buying myself a new mattress, no more down hill slope to the middle for me..... I am so pumped..

Don't know how much longer to go until you complete consolidation, but if you wait, there is always the chance that the prices will drop if you wait.

Generally as a rule I do not use my income tax to pay off debt. I did this year however because the was a quick end in sight. I try and budget my money pretty well through the year so I feel anything I get back is bonus time.

This year I made an error on my taxes so I am sending the check back to them before they hunt me down.

I agree fyi most people generally don't these days use income tax refunds to pay debt..they normally go out and buy more things to have something hopefully in their possession to show to themselves a REWARD for previous year of work and labor....they don't want to pay debt..they want to have something to reward themselves for the hard work they put in and paid all their taxes on the previous year...Fyi what kind of error did you make?..I hope you didn't falsely misrepresent anything....honest mistakes happen all the time and I am sure this is what you must have done...I have a friend who recently tried to purchase business site he has been leasing for 9 years with the equity in his home as collateral---- amazingly he still had built up some considerable equity in times like these!... the IRS took his $90,000 equity he thought he could use to purchase building as down payment.. they swooped in and took it....(from debts on family farming business that was defaulted on in the early 90's when government bailed on the subsidies they were paying farmers to bury crops and banks stopped lending) ---they will hunt you down forever! best of luck in whatever mistake you made!