Updated July 18, 2008

En Español: Pagos de Estímulo Económico

If you haven't yet filed a tax return to get your stimulus payment, you still have time to do so. But you must file by Oct. 15 to get your payment this year. And if you've already filed to get your payment but have a question or issue, it might be addressed here.

Find the Answer

Still looking for your rebate even though you've already filed a tax return? Or wonder why it's smaller than you were expecting? You may find the answer to your question in our:

• Top five questions people are asking
• Frequently asked questions about eligibility, payment amounts, payment delivery and more

If You've Already Filed a Tax Return

You may have already filed but still have outstanding issues. Find out more if you:

• Haven’t gotten your economic stimulus payment,
• Received one for a different amount than you were expecting,
• Amended your tax return,
• Changed your address, or
• Are in the military, have a spouse or children with ITINs instead of valid SSNs and received a reduced or no stimulus payment

If you still have questions, try:

• Our online tool that tells you if your payment has been scheduled for delivery the upcoming week, Where's My Stimulus Payment?
• The Rebate Hotline at 1-866-234-2942  

If You Haven't Yet Filed a Tax Return

If you haven’t filed a federal tax return to claim your economic stimulus payment, you have until Oct. 15 to file to get your payment this year. Find out more if you:

• Receive Social Security retirement or disability benefits
• Receive Veterans Affairs pension, disability or survivor's benefits
• Receive Tier 1 Railroad Retirement benefits 
• Are a low-wage worker, or 
• Filed for an extension of time to file your return.

Get Basic Information

If you're not sure what the payment is all about, read the basic information. 

Find Out if You're Eligible

You are eligible if:

• You or your family has at least $3,000 in qualifying income from, or in combination with, Social Security benefits, Veterans Affairs benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits and earned income. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) does not count as qualifying income for the stimulus payment.
• You and any family members listed on your tax return have valid Social Security numbers.
• You are not a dependent or eligible to be a dependent on someone else’s federal tax return. (The same must be true of any family members claimed on your return.)

Calculate How Much You May Get

• Eligible individuals — between $300 and $600
• Joint filers — between $600 and $1,200
• With eligible children — an additional $300 for each qualifying child

The actual amount depends on the information on your tax return. To find out how much you might be eligible for, use the economic stimulus calculator.

Find Out When You'll Get Your Payment

Whether you've already filed, have yet to file or filed for an extension, find out when you can expect to receive your stimulus payment.

Claim Your Payment

• Complete a federal tax return this year, even if you don’t normally do so. For instructions, a sample Form 1040A and a blank Form 1040A, see our 8-page informational package. Or use the longer Form 1040 and its instructions.

Then

• File electronically. For free free tax preparation software and electronic filing for people submitting a return solely to receive their stimulus payment, use Free File: Economic Stimulus Payment.

Or

• Mail a paper tax return to the IRS based on where you live.

Choose Direct Deposit or Paper Check

You can get your payment electronically as a direct deposit into your checking or savings account by filling in lines 44 b, c and d on Form 1040A or lines 74 b, c and d on Form 1040. Or you can get a paper check by leaving those lines blank.

Get Free Help at Taxpayer Assistance Centers

IRS employees will help prepare Form 1040A returns for low-income workers, retirees, disabled veterans and others. For a list of centers in your state and their hours of operation, Contact My Local Office .

Information For Businesses

• Frequently asked questions for businesses
• FS-2008-21, Business Provisions of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
• IR-2008-58, IRS To Issue Guidance on Special 50-Percent Depreciation Allowance
• IR-2008-22, 2008 Economic Stimulus Act Provides Tax Benefits to Businesses

For More Information

Check out our:

• news releases, audio files, fact sheets and legal guidance 
• Flyers, public service announcements and other marketing products for IRS's partners and others

Avoid Rebate Scams

Identity thieves are using the stimulus payment as bait in their scams. Details can be found in news release IR-2008-11, IRS Warns of New E-Mail and Telephone Scams Using the IRS Name; Advance Payment Scams Starting.

   OBAMA TAX PLAN

The rich would pay more under Barack Obama's tax plan, and the poor and middle-class would pay less, a nonpartisan analysis finds. Under John McCain's plan, the rich would pay much less than they do now, the poor and middle-class would pay a bit less, and the federal deficit would grow, the study found.

Each individual's tax situation is different, so it's hard to say for sure how much more or less you would pay under the presidential candidates' ever-evolving tax proposals.

» Click to enlarge image

Under the tax plan of John McCain (left), the rich, poor and middle-class would pay less. Under the plan of Barack Obama, the rich would pay more while the poor and middle-class would pay less.
(AP)

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And at this point that's all they are -- proposals that may or may not get through Congress. They don't take into account wars, whether the president will sign an expensive social program into law, or the world economy.

With those caveats, here are highlights of how the candidates' proposals to change the tax code would impact you:

Obama says he would hike several taxes on people making more than $250,000, including the amount they pay on capital gains. Currently, the top income tax rate is 35 percent. Under Obama, that would go back up to 39 percent. Obama's staff told the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center he would raise the rates for people in the top two brackets -- about 2.5 million filers out of 100 million-plus. People in those high tax brackets would see the tax rate on their capital gains hiked from the current 15 percent to 20-28 percent.

Obama started his campaign saying his plans would not increase taxes for people earning less than $250,000. But he found himself in an apparent contradiction by saying he would tax all income to fund Social Security, not just income up to $102,000, as is now the case. So now, Obama's plan calls for no Social Security tax on income between $102,000 and $250,000, but all income above $250,000 would be taxed for Social Security.

The 95 percent-plus of the American population that earns less than $250,000 would see the following tax breaks: A $500-per-worker tax credit for people who earn less than $150,000 and do not itemize, and a $4,000 credit per child in college. Seniors who earn less than $50,000 would pay no income tax.

The Tax Policy Center notes seniors could end up paying more if corporations respond to Obama's proposed increase in the corporate tax rate by passing those costs along to consumers.

McCain would make permanent most of the tax cuts President Bush has already enacted, including those that benefit the middle class, such as elimination of the marriage penalty and the increase in child credits. He would also keep cuts that benefit the wealthy, such as the elimination of the highest tax brackets. Obama would keep the breaks for the middle class but not the ones for the wealthy.

McCain would also double the dependent exemption from $3,500 to $7,000, benefitting big families of all incomes.

Obama would leave the top corporate tax rate at 35 percent. McCain would cut it to 25 percent.

The two candidates differ widely in their approach to the estate tax, which the Republicans call the "death tax." McCain would set it at 15 percent for estates above $5 million. Obama would set it at 45 percent for estates above $3.5 million.

Both candidates favor extending a "patch" that would keep the Alternative Minimum Tax from encroaching on middle-income families.

Largely because his tax proposals would leave tax breaks for the wealthy in place, McCain's plan would cost the U.S. Treasury more than Obama's, the Tax Policy Center found.

The precise cost depends on whether you assume the current tax breaks would be renewed or would expire.

Assuming they would have been renewed anyway, Obama's plan would bring in an additional $700 billion in taxes over the next 10 years, while McCain's would cost the Treasury $600 billion. Assuming legislators would have let the tax breaks expire, Obama's plan would cost the U.S. Treasury $2.7 trillion and McCain's $3.7 trillion.

The center uses various assumptions both campaigns quarrel with. Each campaign also accuses the other of not being honest with the numbers.

"Obama raises taxes in a way that's detrimental to the economy," said McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin. "The John McCain plan is a jobs-first plan that keeps small businesses in the game."

Obama's Brian Deese said the $600 million deficit the study pro- jects McCain's plan would create "doesn't count impact of current Iraq war spending. If McCain's plan drives the deficit up and puts upward pressure on interest rates, that increases costs for families and could force really Draconian, across-the-board spending cut