Your Economic Stimulus Payment Check is Coming Early
By Sun on Apr 25, 2008 in Personal finance
Post viewed 525 times, 7 so far today
When the Economic Stimulus Payment schedule was initially announced on March 17, IRS said the first check will be made on May 2 to taxpayers who selected to receive the payment via direct deposit and on May 16 for those who choose to receive paper check instead.
Now, the schedule has been pushed up a little and you may get your check as early as next week, depending on the last two digits of your SSN. Instead of May 2, IRS will begin depositing payments next Monday, April 28, four days earlier than schedule and paper checks will be mailing out on May 9 (USA Today). By speeding up the process, the government is apparently trying to jump start the economy, which has slowed dramatically in the first quarter and lost nearly a quarter million jobs since the beginning of 2008. However, with consumer sentiment at 26-year low (Bloomberg.com) and food and gas prices at all-time high, I wonder how many people will actually spend the money as the government has hoped. If I have thousands credit card debt, I will use that money to reduce my debt, not buy a big screen TV.
For us, there isn’t too much to anticipate because we won’t get a $1,800 check as we originally assumed. Instead, we will only get a little over $400 
But any money is good 
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cs | Apr 25, 2008 | Reply
Each child is worth $300. So, you should be getting $1000 ($400 + 2 x $300).
Tim | Apr 28, 2008 | Reply
there’s always a big divide in what people say they will do and what they actually do. my guess is that many people have already spent the rebate check in anticipation of receiving the rebate check. bad habits are hard to die. I’ve been seeing a spike in shopping since the announcement that the checks were coming early.
it really doesn’t matter if the money gets invested, pays off debt or is used to buy stuff, the money goes back into the market anyways.
dee | Apr 30, 2008 | Reply
It’s $600 per individual, $1200 for couples, plus $300 per child. how are you only getting $400 in that equation, CS?
rs | Apr 30, 2008 | Reply
Actually, the 600, 1200, 300 thing doesn’t really work due to the fact that it is also based on how much you make. If you make over 75,000 they take out 5% of anything above that or 150,000 for couples they take out 5%. So if you were a couple that had two children and made oh let’s just say 178,000 dollars last year , then you would get $1800 but wait since you made $178,000 since that is over $150,000, you take $178,000 - $150,000. That equals $28,000. Then you would take $28,000 times 5%, which equals $1,400. Finally $1,800 - $1,400 is $400 dollars that is all that person would receive. Maybe people should learn to read up on stuff a little more before the go around thinking they are smarter than anyone else on the planet. By the way in case you don’t realize it….. YES Dee this was just for you.
Sun | May 1, 2008 | Reply
RS: Thanks for the explanation. Theoretically, we could get $1800 (2*600+2*300) rebate. However, just as you said, the total amount people eventually receive also depends on their total income. Our $400 some rebate is the result of our income.
peggy | May 3, 2008 | Reply
It would be nice if irs could have updated the date of the stimulus checks being deposited by the last 2 numbers of the persons ss# it really doesnt update the info for everyone does it?
Sun | May 3, 2008 | Reply
That’s right. I found it’s weird that IRS has updated the FAQ section on April 30, but still leaves the payment date as May 2 when the first payment was sent on April 28. Oh well, that’s probably the way the government does thing. They should know that people are now expecting their checks and rely on their website for updated information.
Kelly | May 5, 2008 | Reply
We are waiting for the stimulus payment to be direct deposited into are savings my husbands last two # are 20 and we have not recieved it yet, is there anyway to check on it?