Not all Veteran’s Have Received Their Economic Stimulus Checks Yet
I was doing some reading online last night and I read something that alarmed me: There are over 5 million unclaimed economic stimulus checks currently held by the IRS. A large percentage of those are held by military veterans whose primary source of income is VA benefits or Social Security checks.
But there is a problem… many people whose sole source income comes from Social Security or VA benefits are not required to file taxes with the IRS every year. The problem is that the only way to receive the economic stimulus rebate is to file taxes with the IRS. Many people who are eligible for the stimulus rebate have not received it because they did not file taxes, because they are not normally required to do so. If you know anyone who may be in this situation, please do them a favor and let them know they might be eligible for a rebate.
The stimulus check was automatically sent out to qualifying tax filers, but if you have not yet received your rebate, check, there is still time.
How to claim your stimulus check
First, make sure you filed your taxes. You will not receive a stimulus check if you do not file taxes.
Second, learn when you should receive your rebate. The best way to do this is to use the official stimulus payment tracker provided by the IRS web site. You will need to have information from your 2007 tax return, so be sure to have that handy when you use this online tool.
Third, check for reasons that may delay your rebate check. There may be legitimate reasons for receiving your economic stimulus payment late, or for not receiving it at all.
- If you filed your taxes late, your rebate check will be delayed. Expect a 2-6 week delay if you filed your taxes late. You must file by Oct. 15th 2008 to receive a rebate this year.
- Your stimulus rebate check was garnished. Your check can be garnished by the Treasury Offset Program. If your money was scheduled to be garnished, you should have received a notice. Reasons can include unpaid child support, back taxes, or student loans.
- You PCS’d or changed addresses. The IRS will not forward rebate checks, so you need to notify them if you moved. You should file a Form 8822 with the IRS, and a change of address notice with the U.S. Postal Service.
Fourth, contact the IRS. If all else fails, contact the people who know best. Try calling the IRS at 1-866-234-2942. Again, be patient. IRS workers are receiving hundreds of calls daily, and need time to process your information. You will get much better results if you are friendly with the agent handling your claim.
Fifth, have patience. Above all else, be prepared to wait. The checks acan take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to be sent out. In addtion, IRS agents are handling hundreds of calls daily, so be patient with them.
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August 15th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I got my paycheck and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Your fifth tip came in handy for getting it.
However, it was brought to my attention that these stimulus checks are really quite inefficient. It requires a huge amount of money and work to organize the collection of the money in taxes, then to do the accounting and record keeping, all just to do more bureaucratic work to send it back. It probably amounts to a significant chunk of the money wasted in government bureaucracy. We should just have lower taxes to begin with, rather than have the government take our money and give it back to us.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am
HarvardMarine,
Yes, it takes a lot of time, effort, and money for the govt. to process these checks. They also spent $42 million just to mail out reminders to people who were supposed to receive the checks (that doesn’t count the cost of actually processing and mailing checks; just mailing out notices).
The checks are actually a result of making permanent changes in the tax laws which lower taxes, but it was made retroactively, hence the “rebates.”