I’m in the butter zone free money wise…not only do I and my wife qualify but we still have 4 children under the age of 18. I and the wife don’t make either too little or too much.
As to the OP…while I sort of feel bad for you, I managed to put myself through school (well, ok…I got a lot of aid because I’m Hispanic) AND keep a job that paid me over $3k a year while doing so. I don’t think I have made less than $3k a year since I was around 13 years old in fact (I’d have to check…minimum wage was a lot less when I was a kid, so we’d need to adjust for inflation).
While I don’t know anything about the OP’s situation, I can’t imagine how anyone could afford to go to school (even on a full ride scholarship) and make less than $3k per year without some helpage from somewhere (home or the gubberment being the obvious first choices). Think about it…how can you afford housing and books on $3k/year???
Assuming it’s mummy and daddy helping out I’d have to say that it’s a bit of tough cookies you aren’t getting that juicy government money…and if it’s the state/fed that are helping you out, well…they are already helping you out, ehe? If neither…well, I don’t see how it’s possible frankly. Unless you are going to school full time while living in a cardboard box outside a soup kitchen of course…
Yes, I do have a job. I work as a math tutor at the community college I graduated from. Since there’s about a two-week break between each semester (Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall), I’m effectively not working for eight weeks during the year. It doesn’t make sense to get a McJob for only two weeks four times a year.
Yes, I did do some side tutoring where I claimed about $375 income. Unfortunately, it seems the IRS doesn’t care about under-the-table income. They only use tax liability from line 7 of the 1040 to determine eligibility. So I actually did make over $3000, but I still don’t get a rebate check.
Yes, my dad is subsidizing part of my education in exchange for taking care of him and his stroke. The other part is paid through a Pell Grant. I pay for my car insurance, gas, food not eaten at home, and incidental expenses.
My question is why the Guvmint decided that those who make less than $3000 don’t deserve a check. I guess they’re assuming that ultra-low income earners are going to be spending the money on useless things like gas and food instead of plasma TV’s.
Exactly. It’s a rebate. As in they are giving back some of the money you gave them. If your income is low enough that you paid no federal income tax then there is nothing for them to rebate back to you. Otherwise it would be called a grant and income would have nothing to do with it.
So I’m guessing I get no sympathy here because my income in 2007 was too high for me to get any money?
Before the mob starts building a guillotine, I want to point out that last year’s income was a fluke. We finally settled a contract arbitration from four years ago and got a big retroactive paycheck for all of the money we would have earned under that contract over the last four years. Annoyingly, it was all lumped together and considered 2007 income for tax purposes but it was retroactively spread out over the four year period for purposes of calculating my base pay for my pension.
My 17 year old daughter made over $3000 at her part-time job in 2007, and didn’t get the rebate because she is our dependent. She wasn’t happy either.
As for the Turbo-Tax comment, we also filed that way and got our check by direct deposit. I believe checks are being mailed to people who got a refund anticipation loan, and maybe to those who paid their filing fees out of their refund. Neither of those things applied to us, so I didn’t pay that much attention.
…Poor people have a history of wanting to be able to buy some of those sweet grapes for their tables too. They get tired of being the only ones having cucumbers on their plates all the time. It makes them restless and a little bit wild-eyed.
So many of them have sons and daughters and partners in service to the country too. But their houses back home are getting foreclosed on.
“We” should just keep it up and “we’ll” find out why it is so damned important to be decent to “you” people regardless of what “you” feel about the country.
I’m old enough to remember tanks going down the streets in our cities. Are you? Do you remember the curfews here?
Well, I guess I’m the biggest drain on the system of all because I deducted so much in education expenses last year that I received all of my state and federal taxes back plus I earned enough to qualify for the rebate, so not only did I not pay any taxes, I got $300 from the government.
To all of the high-end earners in this thread that didn’t qualify for a rebate: thank you. Next I’m headed to the used Cadillac dealer and the trophy shop for a blinged-out necklace that says, “Welfare King.”
I was a writing tutor for my uni’s AAC (academic achievement center) when I was going to school for 2001-2005. I had similar weeks off (perhaps 6 off instead of 8) and I still made $8000 a year on average. I was working part time; what kind of peanuts are you tutoring for, son?
I remember the year I made about $1500 while at school. I also remember getting a letter from the IRS saying I owed them almost $1200 according to my W2s… it took several years to convince them I was the victim of identity theft.
Hey, I know damned well that it’s a Cadillac problem to have (not getting the $1200 for ourselves and two kids). We declared a bunch of income this year that it turns out the IRS didn’t know about, but there was no way in hell that I was going to think they’d never find out… So we paid big in April.
