AARP weighs in on tax rebate confusion
I wrote a few weeks ago about some married women whose families had trouble getting the tax rebate.
It turns out, the women never notified Social Security that they changed their maiden name. When the IRS checked the names on the tax return with Social Security records — something required by Congress to prevent fraudsters wrongfully claiming the tax rebate — the names didn’t match. As a result, the families didn’t get their tax rebate.
Reader Paul Cordts sent along this advice he got from an AARP tax adviser. It runs counter to what the IRS told me, which is that it’s too late to change your name with Social Security and amend your return this year. You need to wait and claim the rebate on next year’s return.
But I include it because the AARP says its experience on the issues is different — although the group adds it doesn’t guarantee the accuracy.
Here’s the AARP response to Paul:
"Dear Paul,
We received the follow question from you:
My wife and I have been married for 10 years. In that period we have had to pay tax at filing time and we have received refunds from the government. There has never been an issue with the IRS accepting my payment or sending me/us a refund. We did not receive a stimulus payment so I called the IRS. They told me that since my wife had not changed her name with the Social Security Administration, that we would not get the payment....The IRS agent also told us that if we went to
the Social Security Administration and had the correction made that we would get the payment. We went to SS the next day and did the paperwork.
I then contacted the IRS a couple of days later, and then they told me that it was too late to get the payment because the return had already been processed months ago...Is there anything I can do?
This is our volunteer's answer:
You need to file a copy of Form 1040X. Most of Column A and B will be the same. On page 2 of Form 1040X under explanation write what happened.
Mail a copy of the original tax form and Form 1040X to the regional IRS office for your area. If you do not get the Stimulus Payment this year, you will still be eligible to claim it when you file your 2008 tax return.
This is our answer to your tax question, based on our experience and expertise. Please remember that your taxes are your sole responsibility — we do not guarantee the accuracy of our response.
