So Has Anyone Received Their Economic Incentive Check Yet?

[Pleater]

So in the US you have a cheque - sorry - check fairy that sprinkles pixie dust on your bank accounts and you have more money?

Only in the Spring time - when the weather warms up and the mushrooms start to grow?

Or is this revenue?

Here in the UK we - theoretically - sort out our allowances beforehand, employers are sent a code for each employee to use to calculate the amount of tax to take from any amount of pay, so only if something goes awry do we pay too much, or too little.

So the US economy is sort of tidal - if all the working population overpays through the collection system, and then at the end of the financial year - presumably there is a reckoning and you get back some of it according to your situation - wife? Children? Mortgage? Insurance? But for that you'd have to be registered and in the White Economy?

Does every working citizen get a repayment - or do some get a nasty shock on opening a buff envelope?

I supose if I watched more TV I would be familiar with the system, but the last American 'real life' series I watched was - probably - Mr Ed.

[Kent Frazier]

We received ours on May 2nd. We are using it to fund our trip to Utah in June.

[davedove]

So in the US you have a cheque - sorry - check fairy that sprinkles pixie dust on your bank accounts and you have more money?

Only in the Spring time - when the weather warms up and the mushrooms start to grow?

Or is this revenue?

Here in the UK we - theoretically - sort out our allowances beforehand, employers are sent a code for each employee to use to calculate the amount of tax to take from any amount of pay, so only if something goes awry do we pay too much, or too little.

So the US economy is sort of tidal - if all the working population overpays through the collection system, and then at the end of the financial year - presumably there is a reckoning and you get back some of it according to your situation - wife? Children? Mortgage? Insurance? But for that you'd have to be registered and in the White Economy?

Does every working citizen get a repayment - or do some get a nasty shock on opening a buff envelope?

I supose if I watched more TV I would be familiar with the system, but the last American 'real life' series I watched was - probably - Mr Ed.

Pleater,

This is the government's attempt to stimulate the economy, and is not really part of the tax system at all.

In this case, the government is taking some of the revenues it collected and simply giving it back. The theory is that the people can use the money to spend and stimulate the economy better than the government.

For working individuals, the US also has a withholding set up to take a portion of each paycheck to apply towards the taxes the individual will earn. With all the different deductions and such, it's not an exact procedure, but it is basically a pay as you go system. Self-employed and such must send in quarterly estimated tax payments to mimic the same procedure.

I'm not going to go into whether any of this makes sense or is the right thing to do, as that gets into politics. I'm just trying to give a brief idea of what's going on to our overseas members.

Me, I'm going to use my check to pay off credit card bills from when I previously stimulated the economy.