Thankyou to the US goverment- "I am going to Disney World"

[capecodhome]

I am hoping with the extra tax money the goverment is giving to us to put back in the economy, I will put money down for a vacation in 2009 :sohappy:.

 

[sbkline]

Has this even been officially presented to Congress yet?

At the risk of bursting everyone's bubble, the Congress is now controlled by the President's opposition. Who says they're gonna pass this proposition? Or if they do, who says it will pass exactly as the President has proposed? Congress my choose to give a $300 rebate for singles instead of $600, and they may cut the rebate in half for couples as well. Or they may nix it altogether.

If we DO get this rebate, though, I had thought about using it to justify another trip to WDW later in the year to see the Christmas stuff. But we're going in April, and the wife wants to redo the bathroom this year, and I have a wart on my finger that won't go away no matter what I do short of taking a meat cleaver and chopping the whole finger off. So I'm going to the doctor today to see what he needs to do. If it has to be surgically removed, I'm sure that will cost a pretty penny as well. And we plan to start trying to have our next child this year as well. So the ol' bank account is probably the wisest destination for this check...if we get it.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

You do not have to give it back but it will be reported as income on your 2008 taxes so Uncle Sam will get his cut in the end.

It looks like we will be getting $2100 if I worked the math correctly (me+ wife + 3 kids) and it will go directly into savings. Until the housing market picks up there are far to many rainy days on the horizon.

That's just unAmerican...you are not supposed to SAVE! Get that $2100 and go out and buy $3500 worth of stuff that you just can't live without!
Even better, assume that you will be getting that $2100 and go out and spend it now!
:zipit: :dazzle:

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Has this even been officially presented to Congress yet?

At the risk of bursting everyone's bubble, the Congress is now controlled by the President's opposition. Who says they're gonna pass this proposition? Or if they do, who says it will pass exactly as the President has proposed? Congress my choose to give a $300 rebate for singles instead of $600, and they may cut the rebate in half for couples as well. Or they may nix it altogether.

If we DO get this rebate, though, I had thought about using it to justify another trip to WDW later in the year to see the Christmas stuff. But we're going in April, and the wife wants to redo the bathroom this year, and I have a wart on my finger that won't go away no matter what I do short of taking a meat cleaver and chopping the whole finger off. So I'm going to the doctor today to see what he needs to do. If it has to be surgically removed, I'm sure that will cost a pretty penny as well. And we plan to start trying to have our next child this year as well. So the ol' bank account is probably the wisest destination for this check...if we get it.

It does have to go through the houses, but it has solid bipartisan support. This is just too good a PR deal for any politician to pass up.

From what I've read...if it sails through the process, checks still won't be cut until May

 

[k.hunter30]

If you make over a certain amount, no refund check. :brick:

What is that amount...?:lookaroun

$1800 for us and it will go to either the bank or towards college tuition.

I don't think anybody saves for a rainy day anymore, too bad...

A bunch of people are beginning to. I know DH and I have a nice rainy day fund ("Murphy-repellant" ). You never know when that will come in handy...

 

[k.hunter30]

That's just unAmerican...you are not supposed to SAVE! Get that $2100 and go out and buy $3500 worth of stuff that you just can't live without!
Even better, assume that you will be getting that $2100 and go out and spend it now!
:zipit: :dazzle:

:ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

...so sad, but true...

 

[Laura]

That's just unAmerican...you are not supposed to SAVE! Get that $2100 and go out and buy $3500 worth of stuff that you just can't live without!
Even better, assume that you will be getting that $2100 and go out and spend it now!
:zipit: :dazzle:

That's what I told my husband. I said they're giving it to us to spend, so let's blow it! :lol:

But alas, we're saving for a new vehicle. So it will go into the piggy bank.

 

[tigsmom]

Not to rain on anybody's parade but this is from the NYTimes...

January 25, 2008
Strains on the I.R.S. Could Delay Rebate Checks for Months

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON


The checks will be in the mail — eventually.
But President Bush’s plan to send payments to 117 million households to stimulate the economy would impose major strains on the Internal Revenue Service, delays in answering calls to the agency and require a host of technical rules to determine who ultimately collects the benefits, officials said Thursday.


The deal between the administration and House leaders calls for checks to be issued 60 days after the president signs a law authorizing the one-time payments. That may be in as few as four or five weeks if the full House and the Senate come to terms on the details quickly.
In theory, the first checks may arrive in early May, if nothing goes wrong.
Even as the negotiators crunched the numbers, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation warned that the tax-filing season could be disrupted and hinted that it might be June before checks were issued.
I.R.S. computer and other systems “are today fully engaged in processing 2007 tax returns,” the committee said Monday in a report. “As a result, it is not practical to contemplate distributing cash rebates until the peak filing season is completed, which in past years has been the very end of May.”
At the very least, the agency needs to have in hand the annual returns for last year to know who is married and who has dependent children, information that often changes.


The size of the checks will also depend on incomes and other factors. For example, individuals would not qualify for the $300 payments if they earned less than $3,000, unless they paid taxes on unearned income like pensions and interest.
Although many people who owe no income tax will receive checks, none will be sent to people who pay their taxes through withholding but do not file returns, said Anthony DeSouza, a spokesman for the Treasury Department. Because the withholding tables typically collect slightly more tax than is owed, those nonfilers are seldom pursued.



The article goes on and one, but you get the gist...don't hold your breath waiting for those checks.

 

[k.hunter30]

That's what I told my husband. I said they're giving it to us to spend, so let's blow it! :lol:

But alas, we're saving for a new vehicle. So it will go into the piggy bank.

That so great Laura!! Way to go!:sohappy:

The size of the checks will also depend on incomes and other factors. For example, individuals would not qualify for the $300 payments if they earned less than $3,000, unless they paid taxes on unearned income like pensions and interest.

So the payment is $300 instead of $600 for those who make more than $3,000?

 

[Master Yoda]

$1800 for us and it will go to either the bank or towards college tuition.

I don't think anybody saves for a rainy day anymore, too bad...

I am sure a little of it will get pumped back into the economy (wife wants a Wii) but I really like having a month worth of bills in the savings account and I honestly can't remember the last time that that actually happened.

 

[k.hunter30]

I am sure a little of it will get pumped back into the economy (wife wants a Wii) but I really like having a month worth of bills in the savings account and I honestly can't remember the last time that that actually happened.

Call me paranoid, but I'm the same way. If we didn't have at least 3 months worth of expenses put away some where, I'd be nervous. :lookaroun

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Not to rain on anybody's parade but this is from the NYTimes...

January 25, 2008
Strains on the I.R.S. Could Delay Rebate Checks for Months

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON


The checks will be in the mail — eventually.
But President Bush’s plan to send payments to 117 million households to stimulate the economy would impose major strains on the Internal Revenue Service, delays in answering calls to the agency and require a host of technical rules to determine who ultimately collects the benefits, officials said Thursday.


The deal between the administration and House leaders calls for checks to be issued 60 days after the president signs a law authorizing the one-time payments. That may be in as few as four or five weeks if the full House and the Senate come to terms on the details quickly.
In theory, the first checks may arrive in early May, if nothing goes wrong.
Even as the negotiators crunched the numbers, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation warned that the tax-filing season could be disrupted and hinted that it might be June before checks were issued.
I.R.S. computer and other systems “are today fully engaged in processing 2007 tax returns,” the committee said Monday in a report. “As a result, it is not practical to contemplate distributing cash rebates until the peak filing season is completed, which in past years has been the very end of May.”
At the very least, the agency needs to have in hand the annual returns for last year to know who is married and who has dependent children, information that often changes.


The size of the checks will also depend on incomes and other factors. For example, individuals would not qualify for the $300 payments if they earned less than $3,000, unless they paid taxes on unearned income like pensions and interest.
Although many people who owe no income tax will receive checks, none will be sent to people who pay their taxes through withholding but do not file returns, said Anthony DeSouza, a spokesman for the Treasury Department. Because the withholding tables typically collect slightly more tax than is owed, those nonfilers are seldom pursued.



The article goes on and one, but you get the gist...don't hold your breath waiting for those checks.

Sounds like last year's law requiring Passports for all travel outside the US without bothering to check on the capacity to process all the requests. Took 4+ months for some to get their's processed.

 

[Master Yoda]

Call me paranoid, but I'm the same way. If we didn't have at least 3 months worth of expenses put away some where, I'd be nervous. :lookaroun

Right now I would be good with just a months worth. I would love to get 3 months worth but that is almost a pipe dream. Once we get the little bit on credit card debt we have along with my car paid off there will be considerable drop in out outgoing money which should help but then again my oldest daughter will be getting a car soon.....:brick:

 

[k.hunter30]

Right now I would be good with just a months worth. I would love to get 3 months worth but that is almost a pipe dream. Once we get the little bit on credit card debt we have along with my car paid off there will be considerable drop in out outgoing money which should help but then again my oldest daughter will be getting a car soon.....:brick:

Well, we don't have kids...yet It's just DH and I, so I'm sure we have an unfair advantage. We just want to make sure we're completely debt free (except for our house) and have money saved up for when we do have a child. It so expensive today to have a baby, so we want to be sure we're as finacially prepared as we can be.
A check like this would definitely help add some extra cushion to our savings though!

 

[slappy magoo]

Don't blame me! I didn't ask for the money! :lol: (Plus I'm not using it to go to WDW, even though I'd like to!)

Move to a less expensive area if it's hard living there? :shrug:

Gee…why didn’t I think of that…oh, yeah, I know why…the job I do is only available in NYC or other metro areas. To switch jobs and move somewhere else, the standard of living might cost less, but I’d have a job where I make less. To move to a cheaper section of the metro area, what I’d save on my mortgage would be offset towards paying for private school and extra hospital visits for my various knifing wounds. It’s all relative. Thanks for taking an interest in my life, however.

The money I make is great for most other areas of the world, but pretty much middle-class here. Or at least, what middle-class USED to be, where I can keep up with mortgage payments & utilities, keep clothes on my back, save some money with coupons, look out for sales, and still be able to do the occasional splurge like trips to WDW, and set aside money for my golden years. Not really complaining, and I don’t even really care about not getting a rebate myself, just being realistic.

1: This cut-off point (I believe it's 75K for singles, 150K for couples) punishes people who live in areas where it costs more to survive. A guy who lives in a nice home in South Carolina and makes a dollar just under the cut-off gets a nice rebate. A guy who lives in a tiny squalid studio in a high-crime area of NYC and makes a dollar just over the cut-off is SOL. There's no sliding scale adjustment for people who live in a city or state where everything costs that much more.

2: Count me amongst those who think active or retired military should pay bupkiss in taxes, as they make a sacrifice that can't be counted in dollars and cents. But why is ANYONE getting money back now? We're techncally in the middle of two wars, with lots of saber-rattling for the hat trick in Iran. You should know, more than anyone, what it's taken for even a paltry 3.5% raise for soldiers. You should know that families are conducting fundraisers to send the soldiers in their family stationed in Iraq better armor. The INTEREST on the national debt is roughly a million dollars a minute. And NOW - coincidentally - an election year - after tax cut after tax cut for the people who need tax cuts the least, and with an Administration still spending like drunken sailors and fedral bailouts for lots of banks a dinstinct possibility, our government is finally saying "hey, it's your money, you deserve it more than we do, take it, spend, consume?" No one's suspicious? Fine, everyone that gets the rebate, enjoy it, but it comes at a bigger price, later, for all of us. It's a band-aid & a shot of morphine on a severed limb, might feel better for a short time, but in the end, it doesn't do squat.

Sorry to be all negative, I'm all about WDW like everyone else here. I just don't think ANY of us should be thanking the government for what's been going on over the past few decades and especially since the beginning of this century in terms of throwing a few ducats back our way.

Oh, and the risk of being too political, sbkline made me laugh out loud:

At the risk of bursting everyone's bubble, the Congress is now controlled by the President's opposition. Who says they're gonna pass this proposition? Or if they do, who says it will pass exactly as the President has proposed? Congress my choose to give a $300 rebate for singles instead of $600, and they may cut the rebate in half for couples as well. Or they may nix it altogether.


yeah, because THIS Congress has been so good at standing up to the President so far, :ROFLOL: They're like Pavlov's dogs, all the president has to say is "yer weak on terrrrrr" and they fold like a house of cards every single time. it's not going to take much for these weak-kneed Dems to pass tax rebates to a desperate and angry populace during an election year.

 

[Master Yoda]

Well, we don't have kids...yet It's just DH and I, so I'm sure we have an unfair advantage. We just want to make sure we're completely debt free (except for our house) and have money saved up for when we do have a child. It so expensive today to have a baby, so we want to be sure we're as finacially prepared as we can be.
A check like this would definitely help add some extra cushion to our savings though!

Having kids definitely takes a huge bite out of my wallet. The price of your Disney trips more than double, there are karate classes, after school care, class rings, prom dresses, cars, insurance, the little ankle biters want to eat every single day.....it never ends.

 

[Laura]

Gee…why didn’t I think of that…oh, yeah, I know why…the job I do is only available in NYC or other metro areas. To switch jobs and move somewhere else, the standard of living might cost less, but I’d have a job where I make less. To move to a cheaper section of the metro area, what I’d save on my mortgage would be offset towards paying for private school and extra hospital visits for my various knifing wounds. It’s all relative. Thanks for taking an interest in my life, however.

All I'm saying is it's a free country, everyone is free to choose whatever type of career they want to have and where they want to live, and sometimes what you choose comes along with some sacrifices. In your case, you have a crappy tax situation. If your career is still worth it, despite the taxes and living situation, then suck it up and march forward. If it's not, then change careers. That's the great thing about living in America.

We chose the military for our career path. It involves my husband putting his life on the line and me being a single mother for about 7 months a year and only seeing him about 1 hour a day (if at all) when he's in the country. That is the price we pay to be able to have the pay and benefits we want. I'm not going to complain about the difficulties of the military career path because it's what we chose.

With that said, I agree with the rest of your logic. Cost of living should be taken into consideration when it comes to taxes. And I don't necessarily agree with the government spending billions of dollars for Americans to go out and buy video games with. But don't don't get irritated with the consumers for receiving and spending the money they are given. If you were getting $1,000+ for no reason you'd probably also be talking about how you were going to spend it.

 

[Laura]

Well, we don't have kids...yet It's just DH and I, so I'm sure we have an unfair advantage. We just want to make sure we're completely debt free (except for our house) and have money saved up for when we do have a child. It so expensive today to have a baby, so we want to be sure we're as finacially prepared as we can be.
A check like this would definitely help add some extra cushion to our savings though!

Good for you.

We sold a house over the summer to pay off all our debt. We haven't had a car payment in years and it's nice not to have any other debt except our mortgage.

Unfortunately we ran into some vehicle repair issues that ran up a credit card again, but our tax refund will more than cover it so we'll be back to "debt free except the house" in a couple weeks.

Our goal is to pay for our next vehicle in cash. I hate owing anyone money.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

All I'm saying is it's a free country, everyone is free to choose whatever type of career they want to have and where they want to live, and sometimes what you choose comes along with some sacrifices. In your case, you have a crappy tax situation. If your career is still worth it, despite the taxes and living situation, then suck it up and march forward. If it's not, then change careers. That's the great thing about living in America.

We chose the military for our career path. It involves my husband putting his life on the line and me being a single mother for about 7 months a year and only seeing him about 1 hour a day (if at all) when he's in the country. That is the price we pay to be able to have the pay and benefits we want. I'm not going to complain about the difficulties of the military career path because it's what we chose.

With that said, I agree with the rest of your logic. Cost of living should be taken into consideration when it comes to taxes. And I don't necessarily agree with the government spending billions of dollars for Americans to go out and buy video games with. But don't don't get irritated with the consumers for receiving and spending the money they are given. If you were getting $1,000+ for no reason you'd probably also be talking about how you were going to spend it.[/QUOTE]

But that is exactly what the government wants and expects people to do with that money. Saving the money while good for the individual does NOTHING for the economy. Paying off debts is also not the desired use (while again, a good personal action). The positive effect of this rebate is for people to cash the check the week they get it, head right out to the mall or Best Buy or the car dealership and drop it all.

 

[mary219]

"So...

You're grateful to the Government because they're giving you back your money?

No wonder politicians invariably have self-satisfied, smug looks on their faces 24/7..."

Montys right,its our money that they are giving back to us.there is really something wrong with this picture,yes or no?Don't get me wrong ,i am happy to get some spending money( i will use ours for a summer vacation in upstate ny,had plans for wdw,but because of a new job ,i wont be able to go during the time i wanted to go-that is sad,but i will set my sights on 2009).
But still,It is ours.And i cant help but wonder how much could our taxes be lowered yearly if there is always this extra cash around to send back out when the govt feels the need to do so.

 

[MouseMadness]

Good for you.

We sold a house over the summer to pay off all our debt. We haven't had a car payment in years and it's nice not to have any other debt except our mortgage.

Unfortunately we ran into some vehicle repair issues that ran up a credit card again, but our tax refund will more than cover it so we'll be back to "debt free except the house" in a couple weeks.

Our goal is to pay for our next vehicle in cash. I hate owing anyone money.

Don't go to medical school.

:lol: :lookaroun