Vent on Stimulus Payment

[lydia33]

I am so feed up with the questions on "Why have I not gotten my stimulus rebate?".............CAN I SAY ONE MORE TIME>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> www.irs.gov......................DANG DANG DANG>>>>>>>CURSE CURSE>>>>>>.........

Are all of you feed up with this, too? Are is it just my tax clients? Everyday a few will call and say my friend got theirs where is mine.......... Sorry just had to vent. I know you all understand and by the way WHERE IS MY STIMULUS REBATE???????????????????????????? :spaz:

[Terry O]

We feel your pain!!!!!

I think the BEST - -"how can I find out ifl my "daughter/son/ex/friend - -whatever" get his stimulus - -cause - -ya know - -they're "incarcerated"!!!

[Lion EA]

I went out on my own this year and am learning new software, too; so put lots and lots of clients on extension as I get up to speed. Many are upset about being on extension, because they're afraid they won't get their rebate. Not only do I have to explain to them about the timing, but most of my clients make WAY too much to qualify for a rebate. So, I spend lots of time talking and calming when they wouldn't have gotten a rebate if I'd filed them by 15 April, anyway!

[joanmcq]

My own clients arent' calling....during my tax season meetings I pretty much told 'em you'll get what you get. But I get an email yesterday at my job from a guy asking why he didn't get the full $1200. I only have his 2006 return for which I'm doing a CP2000, not the 2007. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY YOUR REBATE WAS LESS THAN 1200!!!!!!

thank you for letting me whine. And my coworkers get upset when I scream at work.

[Jack from Ohio]

I have never seen so much attention generated over a few hundred dollars. We can't get people to bring us stock basis for multi-thousand dollar transaction, but I better get my d**n $300 free money!!!

People seem to have the idea this was to help the "financially challenged." It was intended as a rebate of taxes to income earning citizens. It is NOT a welfare handout. Getting tired of that attitude from people that only got $300 because they had $0 tax for the year.

Thank you for letting me vent...

[joanmcq]

I know...if you are getting the full $600, its not that big of a sum that it makes a huge difference in your life. If you are really poor, then its free money, so kwitcherbitchin.

498!

[joelgilb]

"WHINE WHINE WHINE" "I need my taxes done tomorrow so I can get my $600 stimulus payment. If you can't do that I may need to hire anothe CPA for my $100 return"

[Lion EA]

I had a client decide to do it herself this year. She then called last minute with problems and wanted to return to me to prepare her return. I told her at that late date she'd be on extension and had about 20 returns ahead of hers and said I'd try to get everyone off extension by the end of June. She agreed. Now, she's emailing me 'cause all her friends are shouting for joy with their rebates! Can't I speed up her return? Good grief.

[lydia33]

I am about ready to add a message to my answering machine and quit answering the phone.......If you have a question about your rebate please go to the internet web page irs.gov. I know when I see caller id that they are my tax clients not my bookkeeping clients and that is what they want. I am going to try that next week. I'll tell you guys if it helped. Hope all are doing okay after tax season. Going to the beach again in 2 weeks with children and grandchildren for a week.

[Evan S. Golar]

I am about ready to add a message to my answering machine and quit answering the phone.......If you have a question about your rebate please go to the internet web page irs.gov. I know when I see caller id that they are my tax clients not my bookkeeping clients and that is what they want. I am going to try that next week. I'll tell you guys if it helped. Hope all are doing okay after tax season. Going to the beach again in 2 weeks with children and grandchildren for a week.

As the late President Gerald Ford said upon pardoning Richard Nixon -

"At long last, our national nightmare is over".

I don't recall ever seeing such commotion, discussion, controversy, hounding over any tax issue since the Tax Reform Act of 1986 as I had this past tax season over this stinking Economic Stimulus Rebate.

Virtually EVERY client that came through my office this tax season had to ask all about the stimulus rebate credit, how it was going to work, when will it come, what is it based on, how much will I get - as if they were getting something for nothing.

[JohnH]

At the risk of soundig like a broken record, I'd suggest you give your email address as a part of your answering machine message. Tell them to email you their question and you'll send info back to them concerning their rebate. You can then email them the link to the "Where's my stimulus payment" page on the IRS website.

This will serve to steer them toward sending you emails rather than calling on the phone in the future, thus lessening the burden on your phone system regarding stimulus payment questions or any other type of question. If only half of them take you up on it, you've greatly reduced the hassle from phone calls of all types, plus you've streamlined your services considerably.

[joelgilb]

Now another one.

" I only received $600.00 back on my stimulus payment, but I had a refund of $1118 on my taxes so shouldn't I have received $1,200.00? How di you mess up my return so I got so little?"

Guess I did a good job on your return and got your actual taxes down to $301, maybe I should have screwed up made her pay 1200 and then she would get her 1200 stimulus

[jainen]

>>I did a good job on your return and got your actual taxes down to $301<<

Possibly. This might have been a good year to deduct sales tax instead of state income tax, or depreciation instead of section 179, or something else that would raise the liability that generates the rebate, and leaves maximum benefit for next year.

[JohnH]

I notice the volume of stimulus payment complaints has fallen off considerably, since most people who are getting them have received their check by now. However, there will still be some glitches to work out and maybe a few cranky clients who feel cheated, so here's a nice article on the subject. The article is written in layman's language, offers all the contacts & links, and would be ideal for any client for whom you aren't inclined to do some follow-up as a client service.

http://biz.yahoo.com/cbsm/080709/93a6f2e84....&.pf=taxes

Personally I've found it useful to do the checking myself for most clients, but I'd probably send this to the one-timers or the clients who stay in chronic trouble with the IRS about something or the other and just aren't worth spending any additional time on.

[Lion EA]

I'm starting to get the clients who made waaaaay to much to qualify who are hearing all the news (designed to get the non-filers to file for the rebate saying they can get $300) thinking that anybody will get at least $300 so why aren't they getting anything...

[RitaB]

I notice the volume of stimulus payment complaints has fallen off considerably, since most people who are getting them have received their check by now. However, there will still be some glitches to work out and maybe a few cranky clients who feel cheated, so here's a nice article on the subject. The article is written in layman's language, offers all the contacts & links, and would be ideal for any client for whom you aren't inclined to do some follow-up as a client service.

http://biz.yahoo.com/cbsm/080709/93a6f2e84....&.pf=taxes

Personally I've found it useful to do the checking myself for most clients, but I'd probably send this to the one-timers or the clients who stay in chronic trouble with the IRS about something or the other and just aren't worth spending any additional time on.

Thanks for the link, John. I haven't been hounded too much, especially compared to some of you, but I had one week in June where it was two or three calls a day! I checked for the clients, like you did, John, and they seemed to appreciate it a lot. When I couldn't determine what was going on, I gave them the phone #.

One really aggravating one last week: Mom did her 30-year-old son's (and her own, BTW), put student loan interest on wrong line, holding up the stimulus rebate, wha-wha, what do I do? I told her call them and try to straighten it out on the phone. If that doesn't work, here is a nice 1040-X that will be a piece of cake for you to fill out. Yeah, that was mean, but she's one of those people who call all the time asking for advice, then does her own return.

For my own personal story, I didn't file my return til June. Had a refund direct deposited on June 13, and the stimulus payment was deposited on June 20. I couldn't believe it. I didn't expect to see it til Christmas. Shows how much I know!

[JohnH]

It's been my understanding that once the initial routine checks went out, returns filed on extension would get their rebate within 2-3 weeks after the return was filed. It's nice to see that is apparently how it's happening. Don't you love those who call asking for "just a little help"? If it were a large number I'd probably have a policy about it, but since it's only one or two I often give in and provide the answer. Mostly I just get their email address & email them a link to the answer for whatever they're asking.

I have had a few who earned well over $150K and tried to compain that they weren't getting a rebate. I try to figure out polite ways to say "Stop your greedy whining and be grateful that you've been blessed with the income you have." However, in my experience most of the over-$150K crowd seem to understand that there has to be a cutoff somewhere. I also explain to them that the pot of money is only so large, so if more people qualified then the payment per person or per child would have needed to be less. That logic seems to appeal to them, especially if they have married children and/or grandkids.

I did have a situation where a parent griped that they were getting $1,200 on their joint return but that their married child was only getting $700 or so on her joint return. I explained that the child (not a client, self-employed, and probably underreporting income) was probably reporting low income, without making any direct comment on my sucspicions about the under-reporting. The parent opened the door when they said if the system were fair it would be the other way around. Being the compassionalte guy I am, I just drove the truck right on through. I suggested that they give $500 to the child and that would set things right according to their idea of fairness, but suddenly the parent decided to change the subject. It's fascinating how often people express what they pretend are profound principles but then aren't willing to back them up with concrete action, even when it's fairly easy to do so.