The stimulus bill gives you 13 bucks a paychek, then you have to pay taxes on it

Interesting, I thought they had said that the stimulus check was not going to reduce your tax refund. That it was not something that would be taken off at the end of the year or that you would have to pay tax on. Something is odd there. We haven't filed yet. I have to look into that.

Okay, question, where would you even report that? Line 21, Other Income? If you look in the booklet on page 28, they explicitly exclude the economic stimulus payment there as nontaxable. Could it be that you calculated the recovery rebate credit section on line 70? That would be in essence the stimulus payment. That was entered for those people who did not receive the payment for whatever reason or for example had a child in 2008 which would have been eligible for the payment but because the 2007 tax information was used, there would not have been a payment received for that child. This way, the payment is made with the tax refund. If you received your full stimulus payment, you don't put anything there. They might have asked you to take it off. Just a thought. Alternatively, if your tax liability turns out to be zero and you would get a full refund, they sometimes mail you a letter to let you know that you might be entitled to more money. They did that with the federal phone tax refund (whatever that was called) two years ago, and they do it, when you have children and didn't enter anything in the additional child tax credit section. This would be in the same section. Did yo maybe misread the letter you got, entered the amount there and took it as a deduction instead of addition to your tax refund? Again, just checking because such a letter is often misinterpreted as a rejection letter. I can't really figure out how that stimulus payment would reduce your refund. Something is wrong. If you received the full amount, this should influence your regular refund at all, definitely not negatively. Please check these links to the official IRS website for further information: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=203191,00.html?portlet=7 http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=201641,00.html "Economic stimulus payments received Q. Do I have to claim my stimulus payment as income on my 2008 income tax return? A. No, the stimulus payment is not reportable as income on your 2008 income tax return. Q. My stimulus payment was more than what the worksheet calculates my recovery rebate credit to be. Does this mean I will have to pay the difference? A. No, you do not need to repay the difference, and the difference will not affect your return. However, your recovery rebate credit will be zero. Q. Will the payment I received in 2008 reduce my 2008 refund or increase the amount I owe for 2008? A. No, the stimulus payment will not reduce your refund or increase the amount you owe when you file your 2008 tax return. The combined amount you received in the form of an economic stimulus payment plus any additional amount you receive, if any, in the form of a recovery rebate credit is independent of the normal tax you would have paid. Q. I have no earned income and no filing requirement, but I filed a 2007 economic stimulus payment return to get the payment. Do I have to file a 2008 tax return? A. If you received your stimulus payment, no. If you did not receive the stimulus payment, and do not pay income tax but have at least $3,000 in qualifying income for 2008, then you should file a 2008 tax return to receive the recovery rebate credit." If they indeed send you a letter instruction you to include your stimulus payment on the income section of the 1040 or to deduct it from your refund... well, that is wrong and you need to pay them a visit.

I'm not sure of half of what you mean. I use Turbo Tax to do our taxes. I submitted the information (my husband's and mine) and then I got an email that our return had been rejected due to not including that stimulus payment. I entered it and after that, our refund amount got slashed in half because of it. It really angered me.