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The Answer To My Incorrect Stimulus Payment

by Erik Folgate

I wrote on Friday that I received the stimulus payment on the scheduled date that I was supposed to receive it. I received a letter in the mail today from the IRS that explained the payment that I was entitled to, and it explained why I received the $600.00 instead of the $1,200.00.

Here is the excerpt straight from their letter:

Filing Status

Based on your filing status, the amount of the stimulus payment is $1,200 or your 2007 net income tax liability, whichever is less. Net income tax liability is your tax before credits, including the alternative minimum tax, less all non-refundable credits other than the allowable child tax credit.

However, if the net income tax liability on your 2007 federal income tax return is less than $600 and you had $3,000 or more in qualifying income, the amount of your stimulus payment is $600.

For those who had their tax refund directly deposited into a refund anticipation loan account . . .

According to the letter, you will receive a paper check in the mail. You can check the payment schedule for when your paper check might be sent out, but do not rely on that. Over 100 people have commented on here about not receiving the payment on time based on that schedule. Also, check out my podcast in the previous post about why I think the IRS should have never sent out a payment schedule.

Categories: Consumer News, Economy & Policy


Erik and his wife, Lindzee, live in Orlando, Florida with a baby boy on the way. Erik works as an account manager for a marketing company, and considers counseling friends, family and the readers of Money Crashers his personal ministry to others. Erik became passionate about personal finance and helping others make wise financial decisions after racking up over $20k in credit card and student loan debt within the first two years of college. Another one of Erik's projects is the site, Stuff We Google.

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Comments

  • Gemma Julien

    My husband and I have not received our economic stimulus check as yet? Are they still being sent out?

  • Georgana

    I recived the same letter earlier this week. It said my calculated amount will be $600 but when I go to the irs website and do the calcutaion, it says $900. What gives???

  • kerri

    Our stimulus payment (according to irs calculator) should have been $738, we received $135. Good luck trying to find out why. I have called the number given, which is completely automated and hangs up on you when you have gone through all of the menu. You do not have an option to speak to someone. The letter stated that I didn’t have any children, but I have 2. Has anyone else had any success in contacting someone who can explain?

  • Kathy

    I did the calculation on the IRS web site. It said that I would receive $900.00. I got my refund today, it was only $600.00. I can not get a person at the IRS phone numbers. Any ideas?

  • bryan

    I am a single filer and made under 40k. I rec’d a check for $533 not the $600 I thought. Why such a strange amount? I electronically file my taxes and have read something about a tubo tax fee being deductedin USA TODAY, but that does not make any sense. Any thoughts?

  • Mary

    My friend and her husband got theirs today and though they were supposed to get $1,800.00 by their own calculations, or 1,500.00 busing the IRS calculator, their check was for only 1,200.00. They were disappointed. I won’t get mine for several weeks yet, but I am not counting on much. I need to get a water heater, but we’ll just have to see. . . . .

  • Jacquelyn Hart-McCoy

    We just had our direct deposited today. It was very late but it was the correct amount of $1200.00.

  • Carrie

    I was hoping somebody else had this problem that also received an explanation. We also received $600, when we were expecting $1200. It was very late, and the letter said the same thing as the OP. However, we wrote a check in to the IRS this year (the amount of the check was considerably more than $600), so can I assume that our “net tax liability” was more than $600? So why did we not get $1200?

    What do we do?

  • Tink

    They lied. Never said anything about making over $3,000 and the letter they are sending is just now being used. So if you filed jointly and made over $3,000 you only get $600 no one is going to get $1200. And here is the worst. Social Security recipients most who do not file taxes as they are told over and over they do not need to unless they owe…will get ZERO even though they qualified for $300. The IRS knew this yet send nothing out to them telling them to file this year. Leave it to the IRS to cheat everyone. If you owe taxes they are also deducting from the amount they send.

  • tina

    we still havent gotten ours and the letter they sent us says 988?? we are a family with 1 child and 1 other dependent. Does anyone know how to get ahold of anyone at the IRS to get it fixed? We should have gotten 1500 or at least 1200. We were planning on using this money for our family. :( the irs is definitley not on top of thier stuff!

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