Remember how, as part of the stimulus package, you had less taxes taken out of your paycheck or if you were on Social Security you received $250 (and no cost of living increase) ? Well, I hope you didn’t celebrate too enthusiastically–the IRS wants their money back! <\/p>\n
My husband does our taxes on Turbo-Tax, and I confess that I really don’t pay a lot of attention to his spouse-type grousings as he is working on taxes. However, every now and then I am amazed at what he discovers. Last night was one of those moments. I retired in February of 2009 and began collecting Social Security. Because I was not retired in January, I did not receive the $250 bonus paid to Social Security recipients. Ok. Fine. Well, after my husband filed our taxes, the IRS refused our return, asking if I had received the $250. They even included a phone number in their e-mail, so I called it. The computer on the other end of the phone confirmed that I had not, in fact, received the $250. OK. We agree. My husband then went back to his computer and confirmed that I had not received that income. Oddly enough, at that point our tax refund grew by $250! Had I received the money, I would never have known that they were taking it back.<\/p>\n
Evidently, many other people are having rude awakenings about the stimulus tax breaks they received last year. Walletpop.com<\/a> (I found the link on AOL. I am not familiar with them, but they confirm my story.) posted a story yesterday about taxpayers who thought that the change in their withholding that was done as part of the stimulus was actually a tax cut. There are some serious jolts going on. <\/p>\n The article reports:<\/p>\n Remember how, as part of the stimulus package, you had less taxes taken out of your paycheck or if you were on Social Security you received $250 (and no cost of living increase) ? Well, I hope you didn’t celebrate … Continue reading \n