Economic stimulus payments

[flexagon]

Wow, since when does the IRS just send checks to people?

http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=177937,00.html

I don't get one, pout, sniff, but maybe you do.

Comments

[webrat.livejournal.com]

This all just came about recently (~2-3 weeks ago) when G.W. signed the bill.

[taegubcrusade.livejournal.com]

This isn't the first time it's happened, either. I remember getting a check from the IRS in 2000 (or maybe 2001) when W bushed through his big retroactive tax cut. We will get one this time, too (thanks, kids!). The big debate in our household now is whether to be good, patriotic citizens and spend it, or sock it away to help rebuild our home-buying-, holiday-spending-depleted savings.

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

Wow, phases out extremely quickly between 75k and 87k. I wonder how they determined that window.

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

I remember the $300 in 2000. I wonder...if we all gave that back do you think the universe would take pity on us, turn back the clock to 1999, and let us reconsider our electoral decisions?

[flexagon]

I'm racking my brains to remember it... I was paying taxes and should have qualified. Probably if I look back I'll find some month where I paid $300 extra on student loans, I was that virtuous in those days.

Changing my vote wouldn't even help, alas. :(

[flexagon]

Screw America, sock it away. (The banks will still make money off you, if not the retailers, if that makes you feel better.)

I'm trying to remember the $300 in 2000, and I just can't.

[flexagon]

Basically my theory is that they didn't want us to get any. Seriously, it's funny that before I stumbled randomly across this link (in a WalMart blog I'll probably never read again), I was already stalking around grumbling about progressive taxation. Every time I get a raise the government smacks me down in some exciting new way -- I'm starting to worry that soon they won't let me use the post office either.

"Sorry, you earn too much to buy stamps. Get out. There's a FedEx office down the street..."

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I did something similarly virtuous I'm sure, but $300 was still something I noticed. :) And no, for the record, I didn't vote for Bush, but clearly changing 50% (or even 2%) of the vote would have helped, so I guess that's what I was kidding about. But I didn't vote for Bush. For the record. Seriously.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

It was just a lovely advance on our 2001 returns :P

[silver-spork.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there was one in 2001. My husband and I got that one since we were both grad students (no money). This time, we barely qualify since my husband is in a postdoc. If we both made the same salary, we'd miss out on this.

The money is most likely going straight into our IRA accounts, while we still qualify for the Roth. Hopefully anyone with debt (esp. credit card debt) is using the money to pay that down.

[niralth.livejournal.com]

You might be like me: I never got an actual check in 2001 (not in 2000 people, Bush wasn't president yet), but when it came time to fill out my taxes for that year it all shook out and I got an extra $300 back.

[niralth.livejournal.com]

What do you want instead of a progressive tax? I think the gov't could get by on less tax money, and should spend less, but I also think that the progressive tax is the most fair way to tax income that there is.

[flexagon]

I'm not sure it's the government's job to tax fairly, really... but anyway, the progressive setup punishes success by providing incrementally less reward for more incremental income, which I don't like. Look at it in the context of nonlinear valuation of money: $1000 is already worth less psychologically to a rich person than a poor person, and then the government takes even more of it away? Bah.

In my view, government should set economic policies that encourage people to be responsible. So keeping in mind that I get worse at economics the wider the scope gets... I'd probably like to see a flat income tax (yes, I would consider that "fair") and a flat sales tax, which would encourage saving and discourage consumption. I'd consider exempting groceries and pharmaceuticals from that sales tax, but no more than that.

I'm sure that somehow the plan would go horribly awry and I'd get impeached. :)