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Rebate payments to NMI, Guam OK’d
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Posted on Apr 30 2008
[B]WASHINGTON, D.C.[/B]—Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. approved yesterday the stimulus distribution plan and payment amount for American Samoa, and payments amounts to Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
As required by the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, the Secretary of the Treasury had to approve distribution plans for “non-mirror code” territories (Puerto Rico and American Samoa ), and payment amounts to territories with “mirror codes” (Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands ). Puerto Rico’s distribution plan was approved on April 16, 2008.
The U.S government started depositing thousands of rebate checks in taxpayers’ bank accounts on Monday, earlier than originally scheduled, with the Bush administration hoping the payments will give a jump-start to a weak economy.
The Internal Revenue Service started making the deposits Monday with the goal of completing 800,000 direct deposits each day over the first three days of this week.
The government’s paper checks will start going out on May 9, a week earlier than previously announced. The rebates, which are expected to reach 130 million households, range up to $600 for an individual and $1,200 for a couple. Families with children will get $300 per child.
The rebates were the centerpiece of the government’s $168 billion economic stimulus package enacted in February and are designed to bolster consumer spending and lift the U.S. economy out of the doldrums.
While many economists believe the country has fallen into a recession, President George W. Bush last week disputed that contention, saying he believed it was a period of slower growth not an full-blown recession.
“It’s obvious our economy is in a slowdown. But fortunately we recognized the signs and took action,” Bush said Friday in announcing that the rebates were going out a few days earlier than expected.
The rebate checks are coming as the IRS wraps up sending out the normal refund checks to taxpayers based on their 2007 tax returns which taxpayers had to file by April 15.
Thirty-five percent of those responding to an Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance Poll earlier this month said that they planned to ruse their refund checks this year to pay utility, credit card and other bills. That was up from 27 percent who said they planned to use their tax refunds to pay bills a year ago.[B][I] (AP/Media-Newswire.com)[/I][/B]
