Here's one for you. Got my 1099-g yesterday, on it the kicker check was twice the size of the actual check i got. What does that mean??

I thought that under the cash method you could have constructive receipt, such that the money is yours when it's made available without restriction. In that case, you could argue that the money was yours when the check was cut (in your emailer's case, presumably 1/23/2008). However, you could also argue that the money was yours, without restriction, when the kicker kicked, and the state started the process of paying back the money, because you were entitled to it and it was just a matter of time until it showed up in the mailbox.

Thanks for the reminder. I haven't received a 1099-G yet (2/8).

An aside: I see that this post is under "today's hottest links" on the OLive website (at least right now).

I completely forgot about this and did my taxes after I thought I got everything back. Then I received my 1099g yesterday (thursday Feb 7) - there is no way it was sent out by Jan 31.

(3) out of (4) of us here in the office filed our taxes before Wednesday, the day which we received our 1099-G. I think this delay in getting the 1099-G is going to become a much larger issue over the next few weeks.

The "rebate" check from the feds is actually an "advance on 2008 taxes and will be deducted from 2008 refunds or added to amounts owed" according to Henry Paulson. I wonder how many millions of people will get trapped by this until tax time next year and suddenly are trapped by underwithholding penalties *and* taxes they didn't expect to have to pay. Thankfully I'm not likely to get one of these Bush turds and so I won't have to worry about it along with the AMT and other delights of the tax code.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the kicker. I know it is taxable as income to the feds; but I can't figure out whether it is an addition or subtraction from Oregon taxes. Turbo Tax isn't helping in this case. My total amount is the same as the Oregon 1099, but the 1099G shows the amount aggregated with my 2006 refund. I list them as two separate sources with different dates. I don't know how to keep Turbo Tax from consolidating them, if it matters. I'm already pissed at TT for this year as it literally ate my tax return following a large update (and I had backups and it ate those too, almost like a cross 6 raided drive search and destroy mission).

Not to be dense or anything, but what are you doing filing your taxes the first week of February when you don't have the documentation for all the items that will affect your tax liability? I can see not having all your medical receipts or something, but when you get a big fat check from the state do you not think of that when you were filling out your taxes? I guess I also don't see the importance of the 1099-G. You can figure out the number on that form without having the form itself.

Early in his career, Milton Friedman worked for the federal gov't and was recognized for coming up with the idea of employer withholding for taxes. He accurately reasoned that compliance would be greater and compliants would be fewer.

Viewed from a different perspective, one might posit that if people were to save all year from their own paychecks in order to pay the IRS, they would be a LOT more likely to pay attention to the cost of government.

If the kicker was mixed in with your annual tax refund, it is less likely that people would recognize where it came from (it might also spur them to think that their tax rate is lower than it is).

Whenever I read a story about how we could save money be rebating the kicker through tax credits, it is usually being pushed by someone who already holds a low opinion of the kicker.

The people I know (regardless of political party) loved the fact that the kicker check came out just before Christmas, and they'll certainly remember it for that reason.

That's why democrats are afraid to go after the personal income tax kicker right now. All they can hope for is to change the rules so that people won't stop noticing it long enough that they won't put up a fight when they eventually try take it away.

"The "rebate" check from the feds is actually an "advance on 2008 taxes and will be deducted from 2008 refunds or added to amounts owed" according to Henry Paulson."

What! Those bastards. So I need to up my withholding this year in order to pay back my Federal kicker check next year. And this is supposed to fool me into spending the money now only to feel the pain in April 2009. I take that back "bastards" is to polite a term.

Greg C

you could also argue that the money was yours, without restriction, when the kicker kicked, and the state started the process of paying back the money, because you were entitled to it and it was just a matter of time until it showed up in the mailbox.

That argument is a 100 percent loser.

Does anyone haev the text of the legislation? Rather than just reading what the media tells us it is. I looked on LOC, but maybe it's too early? I'm trying to find a cited source for the "advance on 2008's taxes."

Ok, I found this link.

The federal stimulus check appears to be a new credit against your 2008 tax, payable in advance, which to me on first reading means it would not reduce your refund below (or increase your 2008 tax above) what it otherwise would have been had the stimulus not been passed.

I know I'm going way past my expertise here, but why would the argument be a 100% loser? The kicker is just a cash refund of money that could have been applied to other or future tax liabilities, or donated to charity, no? And I thought that if a taxpayer elects to apply an overpayment to future tax liabilities, it's constructive receipt at the moment the taxpayer makes an election to credit the refund (when the taxes are filed). So why wouldn't there be constructive receipt here, once you file last year's taxes and elect what to do with any potential refund (i.e. "send me the kicker")?

Here another one that got caught by the late 1099-G. Filed the taxes Tuesday night, go the form in the mail Wednesday morning. Anyone know how many points filing a 1040x is going to add to my score the IRS will use to calculate if they audit me?

I think the point is, even if they applied for and got, their kicker back from being donated, they got "control" of the money in 2007 and donated it. So they get the 1099G, and would need to list it as a donation in their itemization.

Is the 1099G supposed to just list the kicker portion of your 2006 refund? I'm pretty sure my 1099G, that I just got, is about 2.5 times what I got. (Where is the rest of my kicker!)

So why wouldn't there be constructive receipt here, once you file last year's taxes and elect what to do with any potential refund (i.e. "send me the kicker")?

You seem to be misunderstanding the doctrine of constructive receipt. You have constructive receipt only when funds are put aside so that you can draw upon them at any time. Until you get the check, you haven't got access to the money.

If you affirmatively donate your kicker check, I suppose you have constructive receipt when your money is actually paid to the state school fund. But if you didn't affirmatively donate (and our reader did not -- that's why eventually got his kicker), and the state doesn't get around to paying you until 2008, you had neither money nor access to the money in 2007.

Think of it this way: If my employer mistakenly refuses to cut me my December paycheck, but realizes her error when I point it out to her in December, and she pays me in January, when do I have the income for tax purposes? In January.

...about the wisdom of the "kicker" as a substantive policy matter, administratively it's a nightmare. The politicians who thought it up should be condemned.

That would be the branded Band of LIARS. Beyond 'condemned,' incarcerated.