Just when we'd all but forgotten about those rebate checks many of us received this Summer, the subject is coming up again now that we are approaching the year's end. Now is the time when many Americans begin to organize their documents for the upcoming tax season — can you believe the April deadline is just five months away? As you are entertaining the idea of filing your tax return, keep in Read more

When rebate checks were distributed to Americans this Summer the IRS only cut checks to citizens whose names and social security numbers matched. The IRS recently announced they would be issuing overdue checks to 250,000 couples that qualified for the stimulus but were overlooked because of mismatched names and social security numbers. If one person decides to change their name after marriage, Read more

Uh-oh spaghetti-o. The economy grew less than expected from April to June despite all the tax rebate checks that were sent out. The news goes right along with the 77 percent of Savvy readers who didn't believe the checks would stimulate the economy. Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the second quarter, primarily because of a burst in export sales powered by the Read more

Much to nobody's surprise, the rebate checks issued as part of this year's economic stimulus package haven't done enough to boost our economy thus far. In fact, economists are wondering if another round would prevent our economy from falling apart entirely. Strong words? Yep, but there are too many people losing their homes and suffering from job losses to ignore the big pickle that is our Read more

IRS employees haven't had the chance to be bored at work since the economic stimulus plan was announced this year. The IRS fielded six times the call volume during the week of May 24 than the same week last year, which meant extensive waiting time for callers. A new report from the Government Accountability Office makes it clear that any consumer spending resulting from the checks may be Read more

You'd think the issuance of rebate checks would be smooth considering this isn't the first year they've been sent to encourage taxpayers to spend, but there have been several bumps in the road to stimulation. While this error certainly isn't as bad as sending rebate checks to incorrect bank accounts, it does require the attention of those rightfully receiving payment. Several Americans have Read more

Whether we received our rebate checks according to schedule or not, it seems their arrival (or anticipated arrival) resulted in a surprising retail resurgence. Economists who estimated retail sales would see a 0.5 percent boost during May were proven wrong when sales actually increased by one percent. This may indicate the economy isn't as weak as thought, although it's going to take more than a Read more