Seniors can find help with tax rebates

Published 10:47 am Monday, February 18, 2008

First some IRS business to discuss, and then a little episode from our house of “Kids Say the Darnedest Things.”

When millions of seniors said, “Show us the money,” Congress finally did.

The economy stimulus package signed into law last week was expanded to include 20 million older Americans who, for the most part, don’t file income tax returns because they don’t earn enough money to pay taxes.

The law also includes folks whose primary income is from veterans disability compensation, pension or survivors benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Getting those extra bucks from the stimulus package, however, means paperwork for everyone.

It’s the government, after all.

To receive the rebate, you must file a 2007 federal tax return.

For low-income seniors who normally would not have filed tax forms, the rebate is $300 for singles and $600 for a couple.

The “qualifying income” is $3,000, the IRS says. Income from Social Security, VA disability and any other pension or job needs to be at least that much.

For example, if you only received $2,500 in Social Security in 2007 but had a part-time job that paid you $600, you would qualify.

In January, all Social Security recipients received a Form 1099 SSA in the mail that lists the amount they received in 2007. If you’ve misplaced that form, the IRS says it’s OK to multiply your monthly check by the number of months you received benefits to get the amount.

If you earned more than $3,000, received Social Security and have already filed your tax forms, no problem. That’s all you have to do. The rebate check should be in the mail sometime in late May or early June.

If you filed your federal income tax forms and did not have a $3,000 qualifying income, but would have it now that you can add in such benefits as Social Security and VA disability payments, then you may need to amend your return.

I know all of this can be confusing, but there are many free tax preparation sites at area senior centers as well as the TaxAide Center at Everett Community College (call 425-388-9565 for an appointment) where you can receive help.

Or, to find a Tax-Aide counseling service near you, call 888-227-7669. You will reach a computerized information service that will ask for your ZIP code and then give you the location of the service nearest you.

If you call Snohomish County’s Information and Resource line, 211, they can also help you locate a free tax preparation service for seniors.

Both the IRS Web site (www.irs.gov) and the AARP Web site (www.aarp.org) have additional information.

Now, for the kid thing. My 9-year-old grandson has been writing adventure stories that he sometimes sends to me for “editing.”

His most recent involved a meteor shower destroying a ferry he was on with his mom en route to a soccer game. In the story, he jumps overboard, swims for three hours and hitchhikes to the soccer game. Only after the game does he bother to check at a hospital to see if his mom survived.

I pointed out to him that it might be nicer if his super soccer hero at least tried to help his mom rather than abandon her for the game. He thought about it awhile.

“But Grandma, he did take her a chocolate peanut butter cup when she was in the hospital and you can’t be late for a soccer game. “

Oh, well, so much for seeking out an editor.

In that same vein, my husband’s oldest daughter, now 47, was the subject of a news story in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. Kerry lives in rural Whitman County. Her old farmhouse is 21/2 miles from the nearest county road.

For eight days, she was snowbound, separated from the county road by 8- to 12-foot snowdrifts. A cell phone and the Internet kept her linked to family and friends.

A few days ago, the county road crew cleared out the road to her house, a nine-hour Herculean task.

A reporter, looking for a fresh angle to the daily weather story, called to discuss the impact of her lengthy isolation with just two cats and two dogs for companionship.

She had prepared, of course, stocking up on canned food for everyone.

“She could have made it even it even if supplies had run low,” the reporter wrote, and then she added a quote from Kerry: “A can of pork and beans will form a turd.”

Whoa, Nellie! Did my stepdaughter just use a word not generally used by genteel ladies to describe a bodily function? Yes, indeed. There it was in black and white.

“Oh, look, dear,” I said sweetly to my husband, “here’s a story about Kerry you’ll want to read.”

He just shook his head. Kids do say the darnedest things, no matter how old they are.

Linda Bryant Smith writes about life as a senior citizen and the issues that concern, annoy and often irritate the heck out of her now that she lives in a world where nothing is ever truly fixed but her income. You can e-mail her at ljbryantsmith@yahoo.com.