Checked the IRS site to find out when we?re getting our rebate and it tells me we?re not because of an invalid social security number. I think it?s mine, I never changed from my maiden name 22 years ago, have been filing married filing jointly and getting our refunds or paying taxes every year with no problem. Now this, Can it be fixed? I spent 3 hours trying to get to the IRS today but you can?t get to anyone who knows the answer. Can I re-file using my maiden name ? If I go down now to SSI and change the name how would they ever know?
This SSA sends updates the name & ssn data weekly, if you correct your name with SSA it will eventually show up at IRS, validating the surname your using for tax purposes.
In years past even regular refunds have been held do to this issue, odd that it did not effect you until this event?
You might still try to call IRS to confirm the exact issue, and that you will correct your name with SSA, at some point the rebate will be pushed manually to you & your spouse.
In the past did you paper file or e-file? Same question for 2007. Did you get a refund for 2007 already? Has any income or payment ever been reported under your SSN since you've been married? (examples: bank account interest, wages, SS benefits, student loan, mortgage interest).
Are there any other SSN's on your return, for dependents, alimony, seller-financed mortgage, whatever? It could be one of those instead of yours.
These are the things I would start with when looking for an explanation (not a solution). The solution is, you will be able to get your rebate eventually, so it is not lost. I would expect you will get an explanatory letter at some point if you do nothing.
The way I read this, you say "we", as if you filed a joint return with husband, in which case his social security would normally have been listed first, unless y'all were among the very few who list your name and number first.
So check again, using name and number first listed on the joint tax return. That is IF I read you right.
IRS makes one pass on each original return for ESP eligibility. If your return was passed over because the secondary SSN is listed as invalid (meaning the number and the name control, i.e., the first 4 letters of the last name you used on the tax return, don't match), you will not receive a stimulus check in 2008. It's in your interest to update your name with the Social Security Administration (SSA), however, doing so won't change your apparent ineligibility to receive a stimulus check.
As another response correctly told you, IRS gets a computer file weekly from SSA that lists name corrections. You should receive Notice 1378 from IRS in a couple of weeks formally notifying you that due to the invalid SSN, the law forbids IRS to send you a stimulus check. As long as you get SSA to change your name on their records this year, there should be no problem with you qualifying for a stimulus credit on your 2008 return. All you need to do is notify SSA of the name change. The IRS-SSA data match will take care of the rest. However, due to IRS' one pass policy for ESPs, you and your husband will receive any stimulus credit you qualify for when you file your
2008 tax return.
The IRS toll-free lines are flooded beyond capacity with stimulus payment callers. If you want to talk with someone at IRS about your situation, you can speak to an IRS customer service representative face to face at your local IRS walk-in office.
to answer the questions, Yes, income has been reported for the last 22 years under my married name and social security number. We got a refund already for the 2007 tax year. I did check under my husbands social sec # as his is listed first on our return, a screen comes up saying we are not eligible for the rebate due to an invalid SS#. We always paper file. There are no other social security numbers on the return, just me and my hubs. I was able to get through to Social security yesterday but they were of little help. They are sending me the form to change my name and had no idea what to do about the rebate, I have never had any problems at all with this, I have been recently called for jury duty , have gotten 2 mortgages (one within the past 4 years) and several credit cards , my drivers license..everything without a word. Thanks for all your suggestions. I will try again today to get through to IRS, hopefully I can.
I finally got through to the IRS. I am being told I am not getting it..period. I was told there is no change I can make now that will get me the rebate. If I change my name with social security now I will be ablr to get it NEXT year, if there is one. My husband doesn't get it either. This is ridiculous.
If there isn't a next year, what difference would that pittance have made?
OTOH, it sounds like you may not know that the stimulus payments now being issued are an advance payment, based on your 2007 return, of a tax year 2008 refundable credit. That means that if you qualify for the payment and didn't receive an advance payment in 2008, you'll get the credit when you file your 2008 return in 2009.
The only potential mystery to me is how you got by so many years with a Social Security name mismatch. It's probably because you always file on paper, and since they had your W-2's they were able to let it slide. Instead of griping about the IRS you should be thanking them for cutting you slack in the past.
Now that you've identified the problem, get it fixed by making sure that the name you use on your tax return matches the name you use at Social Security.
Slightly off-topic. But the proponents of the proposed National Retail and Services Sales Tax initiative tout the monthly rebate check part of their scheme. This one-time rebate is taking two and a half months to get out, causing tens of thousands of hours of grief by debt ridden taxpayers, tens of thousands of hours of telephone support personnel, and untold costs related to the above.
Does anyone see a valid reason to do this every month?
One other possibility is that y'all's income is too high for the rebate. If it's over 150,000 on a joint return, no rebate this year, but you will enjoy a lower tax by similar amount on year 2008 return.
I disagree. It is precisely because this was a one-time rebate that it is so much trouble. First, it was passed at exactly the time when the IRS software people are frantically trying to make sure that the previous year's taxes are processed correctly and timely. Then, you were asking them to base rebates on information that was just processed, has barely been validated, and with new rules regarding eligibilty and amount which had to be programmed in. On top of all that, the wording of the original law and the subsequent notices is so confusing to the average person that results in thousands of calls per day trying to clear up the confusion.
If I understand the Fair Tax and similar proposals correctly, you get a rebate check every month to ensure that you do not pay tax on purchases that would put you below the defined poverty level. Everyone gets this rebate whether they make one dollar or one million dollars. And, the formula for calculating the poverty level is clearly defined and based on some sort of index which is also easy to program. Plus, there would be a transition period for the software to be developed to do this totally new task. Based on that understanding, checks could roll out on a regular schedule without a hitch.
It is often easier to design a totally new process than to retrofit an existing one. Especially given that IRS computers were invented in the stone age because the speed of government cannot keep pace with the speed of technology.
Not unless you join us paupers with lower income. The AGI phaseout applies to both the 2008 credit and the advance payment.
There are cases in which people will qualify for the credit but not the advance payment. I have a friend who exercised some stock options last year that put him over the AGI limit for the advance payment, but I've already instructed him on how to keep 2008 AGI low enough to qualify for the credit. Other examples would be people who have a child in 2008 or divorced parents who alternate years claiming a qualifying child's personal exemption.
"Richard Barndt" wrote in news:y9adnat2zf2Oa7zVnZ2dnUVZ_q2hnZ2d@internetmontana:
I agree that a regular rebate system would allow the agency to focus on the outlyers. However, the "fair tax" (H.R. 25) does NOT propose that "everyone" get a rebate; rather, the rebate goes to something called a "qualified family" (Sec 302). Determining who or what meets the "qualified family" test would provide plenty of opportunity for problems needing customer service intervention by the 51 tax administering jurisdictions (not sure who would provide cooordination in interstate problems). This data then flows to the SSA who would make the actual payments as I read it.
Hopefully, you didn't switch taxpayer and spouse SSN's in order to try to move up in the schedule -- that's probably guaranteed to mess things up for this year.
Phil wrote: OTOH, it sounds like you may not know that the stimulus payments now being issued are an advance payment, based on your 2007 return, of a tax year 2008 refundable credit. That means that if you qualify for the payment and didn't receive an advance payment in 2008, you'll get the credit when you file your 2008 return in 2009.
True? Where would I find that information ? If thast's the case I will be much happier.
I don't know why this wasn't brought to my attention earler either and neither did the IRS.
And no, we didn't make too much money to qualify, I wish we did.
I learned it by groping through the language of the law, HR 5140, which you can find at
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Because I'm used to reading stat language I find that easier than trying to find something in the simplified explanations provided by IRS and the press, but that's not the case for most people.
I suggest you try the special stimulus pages at
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concentrating on finding references to the 2008 return.
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