Free Cash! (And Don't Forget Us in November)
If you're like most working Americans, your mailbox this week held a gift from the IRS in the form of an "Economic Stimulus Payment Notice." These gems of efficiency are designed to inform taxpayers that they'll be receiving a one-time payment of up to $600 for individuals -- or $1,200 for couples filing jointly -- courtesy of their benevolent Washington representatives.
But there's something curious here, which is this: In order to get these checks, taxpayers have to do -- drum-roll here -- precisely nothing. That's right. Just file this year's return, like you're required to do anyway, and the extra cash will follow.
"These special letters remind people that they won’t need to do anything more than file a 2007 tax return in order to put the stimulus payment process in motion,” Acting IRS Commissioner Linda Stiff said in a statement.
Which begs the question: Why did we need to be told to do nothing?
A quick glance at the notice gives the answer. "Dear Taxpayer," the text reads. "We are pleased to inform you that the United States Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which provides for economic stimulus payments to be made to over 130 million American households."
The message is clear: Your elected officials are working for you! And it's a brilliant move on their part. After all, why inform the electorate just once how much you're doing for them when you can do it twice for the bargain-basement price of $42 million? (That was the cost to print and mail the 130 million notices -- a tab picked up, of course, by the taxpayer recipients.) It's like a direct-mail advertisement for congressional incumbency.
And while the $42 million figure prompted criticism from a few congressional budget hawks, the outcry was far from overwhelming.
Only one complaint: They forgot to tell us to spend it on shoes and VCRs just as fast as we can. How else will we know that it's unpatriotic to save?
Comments:
Posted 03/27/2008 06:56pm with
Bush comes into office, everyone gets a $300 check (well, everyone who works for a living…): go shopping
Bush leaves office, everyone gets a $600 check (well, those who file): pretend it didn’t happen.
“Why did we need to be told to do nothing?” Indeed. Usually, the recipient doesn’t need to be told what to do with a bribe…
Posted 03/28/2008 03:36pm with
Mike, although I don’t disagree that sending out the notices to the tune of $42 million is quite excessive, your “Just file this year’s return, like you’re required to do anyway” isn’t quite right.
There are millions of people who don’t ordinarily file tax returns who will nonetheless be eligible for the stimulus payment. One particular group is people in entitlement programs, such as those on disability or receiving Supplemental Security Income. Those people don’t ordinarily file tax returns, but they have to file them this year in order to get the stimulus check. Also, people who receive veterans’ benefits or are low-wage workers, whose income doesn’t pass the threshold such that they have to file a return, will be eligible.
In fact, the IRS is having a “Super Saturday” to help all the people who are filing a return solely for the purposes of getting the stimulus check to do so.
Perhaps to save money, the government could have sent out a targeted mailing to people in entitlement programs (e.g. everyone receiving a monthly check from the Social Security Administration), but there would still be groups of people, like low-wage workers, who wouldn’t receive the notice. So I’m not sure there’s any way around the cost that was incurred. If they didn’t send out such a notice, then surely many people who would have otherwise been happy to file, to get the check, wouldn’t have done so.
Posted 03/28/2008 08:40pm with
To m_leblanc: Point well taken. And I should have mentioned that Social Security beneficiaries, Veterans, and others who may not usually file tax returns might also be eligible for the payment. But they aren’t included in the 130 million (nor the $42 million). The IRS is sending them notices as well—in an entirely separate mailing.
As for the low-income earners: Odds are that if they’re earning too little to file taxes this year, then they probably didn’t file taxes last year either. And yet the 130 million households were identified by the very fact that they did file tax returns last year. So the only folks who will really benefit are those who filed last year but weren’t planning to do so again next month. I don’t know how large an audience that is, but I’m guessing it’s not terribly significant—and that there was a better way to target them. (Events like “Super Saturday” sound like a good start).
And back to the low-wage folks for a minute: The government has never found a great way to locate them, whether it be for Medicaid enrollment or an IRS benefit like this one. Maybe rather than sending notices to the highest-income households, the IRS should have sent them instead to exactly everyone else. For anyone with other suggestions, there are plenty of well-meaning administration officials who’d love to have them.
Posted 03/29/2008 01:44pm with
And yet the 130 million households were identified by the very fact that they did file tax returns last year. So the only folks who will really benefit are those who filed last year but weren’t planning to do so again next month.
I don’t think I realized that. That seems the most salient point to make in arguing why sending the notices was a waste of resources. Given that, the only remaining argument I can see is that the notices to the 130 million would alert people that they’ll be receiving a check, reducing the chances that people will just throw away the check when they receive it, thinking it’s junk mail. Of course, a lot of people probably threw away the notices for just that reason.
Posted 04/01/2008 12:31pm with
Wow, $42 million for snail mail, huh? (I thought they made a point of letting us know they had access to our emails. So don’t they have a big list of all our cyber addresses?) But seriously, didn’t we used to disseminate civic news through public libraries and public schools, and other civic centers? Oh, wait, we hate civic centers! Librarians are “radical [and] militant” according to the FBI, and schools aren’t even worth funding.