Tax Rebates Starting To Arrive

Tax rebates are hitting some bank accounts.  The Internal Revenue Service started making direct deposits on Monday to hundreds of thousands of people.   The tax rebate is part of a stimulus plan to help the ailing economy.  News On 6 anchor Craig Day reports many people still have plenty of questions.

The government is sending the first round of rebates to 800,000 bank accounts each day for the next three days to people who filed their 2007 returns electronically and opted for direct deposit.  Another five million direct deposits are scheduled for Friday.

Many Tulsans are looking forward to getting their rebate.

"Probably I'm not going to spend it on anything.  I imagine I will just put it in my account and let it take care of other bills and things," said Tulsan Joe Snell.

"I bought a laptop so I'm going to pay that off," said Rachael Vickery of Tulsa.

"I'll probably use it to send some of it to Dallas for my son and grandson and probably spend the rest of it on myself here in Tulsa," said Maxine Gordon of Tulsa.

The rebates range from $600 dollars for an individual or $1,200 for a couple.  Families with children will get $300 per child.

"I'll probably just take it and take care of business.  Pay bills and it's extra money.  I'm not going to go.  It's going to get me caught up," said Tulsan Keith Hudzinski.

So, when will you get your rebate?

It's based on the last two digits of your social security number.  For direct deposit recipients, those with a Social Security number ending in 00 to 20 will see their money by this Friday.  Those with numbers 21 to 75 will get their direct deposits by May 9th.  The rest get their deposits by May 16th.

The government's paper checks will start going out in the mail on May 9th with the last ones going out July 11th.

A couple of important things, the IRS says if you bought a financial product through a tax preparation service, like a refund anticipation loan or got your refund in advance on a debit card, your rebate will come on a paper check in the mail.

If you haven't filed a 2007 tax return yet, you have until October 15th of this year to do so in order to receive a stimulus payment.