Picked this up off the web. What's the deal?!?!

http://www.detnews.com/2001/politics/0107/26/-254330.htm


Surprise: Tax rebate not a rebate
Checks being mailed are really an advance on 2001 refunds

By David Milstead / Scripps Howard News Service

   WASHINGTON -- The tax-relief checks that will start arriving in mailboxes next week should have a consumer-warning label: "Warning: This check is not a 'rebate' of taxes you already paid. It's an advance on the refund you'll get when you file next April. "
  If it's an advance, you ask, does that mean my refund in April will be $300 smaller than it would have been? And if I'm unlucky enough to owe taxes, does that mean my tax bill will be $300 higher?
   
  The answer to both questions is yes. But you'd never guess that from the 1040 you'll fill out next year. It's been designed so that it's nearly impossible to realize how the 2001 rebate checks affect your tax preparation in 2002.
  "I think people think what they're getting is a refund of taxes they paid in 2000," said Gary Dudley, the tax partner-in-charge at Deloitte & Touche's Denver office. "If they think their taxes were going to show up lower April15 (from this change), they're not."
  The "immediate tax relief," as the Internal Revenue Service calls it, was designed by Congress and the Bush administration to give taxpayers the benefit of a 2001 tax-rate reduction as soon as possible. Rather than wait for next April, you'll get the tax cut now.
 
... more on posted link.

politics in Washingotn!

Ask me if I am really surprised?

Zaz

Look, it's REALLY, REALLY SIMPLE:

For your 2001 taxes (due in 2002), you WILL have to pay $300 (single) or $600 (married) LESS than you would have had to pay before Bush's tax cut went through.

Period.

What this reporter is trying to turn into a giant fuck-you-Bush is that you're still gonna have to either get a refund or write a check, depending on whether your withholding was too much or too little.

Big deal, it would have happened anyway -- but your NET TAX BILL for 2001 (due by April 15, 2002), IFF you earned more than $6000 (or $12000) above your deductions, will be lower by $300 ($600).

Does anyone need it in words with fewer syllables?? [rolleyes]

This is really easy.  For the first 6 months of 2001 you will get a rebate on your taxes because the Bush tax cut was put into effect like it had started on Jan. 1 and since that time had already passed the only way to get the tax cut right away was a rebate check.  For the second 6 months of 2001 the tax cut will automatically be figured in your pay check so that not as much money is getting pulled out as before.

What really sucks is that in 7 or 8 states (Alabama included) this $600 or $300 will have to be reported as income, and state tax paid on it at the end of the year. The tax burden in Alabama is low compared to many other states, but this really sucks.

btip, you have to pay taxes on it because in your state you did not pay tax on your entire adjusted gross income. You only paid on what you made after paying federal taxes. Since you will be paying less in taxes to the fed, that portion will be taxed now by your state. Most states, mine included, tax your entire adjusted gross income after deductions. FWIW, my state taxes the shit out of me.

Most all of us will be taxed less this year and the $300-600 is an advance on this. It is not free money falling out of the fucking sky. Some sound like a bunch of welfare bitches.

The $300-600 advance is meant to give the economy a little push. If you live on this planet you ought to realize we can use it.

Every year or 2 there will be further tax reductions and benefits. In ten years (yes that's 10, for all of you immediate gratification types) there will be substantial reductions. I know I can use it. Uncle Sam currently ends up with more than half of what my wife and I earn.

Finally, I am also tired of hearing the "what, only $300" types whine about how their 300 doesn't amount to enough to help the economy. Consider this, your 300-600 gets spent, goes into someone elses pocket who spends it, etc. etc, etc. This becomes a huge addition to local state and federal economies.

My state doesn't HAVE an income tax, so I don't give a rusty rat's ass if this comes from this year or last year or 200 frigging years from now.
Dumbasses looking gift horses in the mouth, IMHO.

Join me in gritting teeth as I spend the relief money on high-priced [i]petrol[/i] while vacationing in anti-gun Canada!!!

"...take a little trip; take a little trip; take a little trip with me-eee!"
(WAR--LoRider)

And this "rebate" of this years taxes only cost the tax payers about 40-million dollars to process. [:(!]

Yeah...MUCH better that the money had been spent on studying how cow farts affect the environment or on a monument to the inventor of Swiss Cheese in some congressman's home district.

I have said this before, and people have called me an idiot and proceeded to talk about what they are going to buy. This tax rebate is bad!!! We will end up paying for it in the end. They are projecting a "budget" surplus, not an actual surplus of funds that is sitting in an account somewhere. We are playing with money written on paper folks. So to those that bought new stuff with your refunds I hope you enjoy it when they raise taxes in 5-7yrs.

This is Bushs' biggest blunder IMHO. It may make him king now but you just wait......

That's it I'm calling our friend bavarian to annoy you again [smash]