Reply #2: Same thing happened back in 2001 [View All]

[Heddi]

when everyone got that "Tax Rebate" bullshit.

Hubby and I got $600. Woohoo. We didn't put it back into the economy like Bush thought we would. Just so happened (sadly) that a week or two after we got our check, my hubby's grandma died, so we used it for airfare for her funeral.

We would have spent the money for the flight anyways without the check, so there was no 'massive economic boom' from that "rebate".

Of course, as we all know, it wasn't a rebate. It was an advance on estimated tax returns for that year.

Thank GOD we were able to claim moving expenses in 2001, otherwise we would have had to pay the government over $1000. Strangely enough, that $600 we got as a "rebate" was included somehow (i'm not a CPA, so I don't know the wording) so that our tax base for the year INCREASED by $600...

It wasn't a REBATE. it was a PRE-PAY of estimated taxes. They never pushed that point, and I know ALOT of people who had to pay back EXACTLY what they got earlier in the year.

And not everyone got the REBATE---but they still had that amount figured into their taxes at the end of the year---including my mother, who got a check for $41.00 but was taxed as if she got the full $300 or whatever.

See, a REBATE is money back on something you bought. I buy a camera for $45.00, I send in the receipt, and I get a $20.00 REBATE based on my purchase.

A REBATE is not an ADVANCE. Those Checks in 2001 were called REBATES (I've still got the letter they sent us telling us how much we'd get, and the word REBATE is used 3x's in a 3 paragraph letter). But in reality, they were ADVANCES.

I don't have kids, but I suspect the same thing applies here. They called it a REBATE (as if it were free money), when it was an ADVANCE based on an estimated return, just like it was in 2001.

I hope people wake up to this when they do their taxes this year...