Top Reasons Your Stimulus Check May Not Have Arrived yet and Breaking Updates

There has been a lot of buzz lately about people receiving stimulus checks late - or not at all. Perhaps you've been waiting patiently - or impatiently - for your stimulus check to arrive, having earmarked that money for a specific purchase. Perhaps the anticipated deadline for the check's arrival has come and gone. Perhaps you've diligently gone to the IRS site at : www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=180250,00.html to make sure you know when you should have gotten your check.

Based on that information, you believe you should have gotten your stimulus check but it isn't in your bank account or it has arrived by mail (sometimes called snail mail for good reason).

There are a wide variety of reasons why you may not have gotten your expected tax rebate yet. Some reasons are lesser known - and even shock or surprise people. Hopefully, you'll be among the group of people who can be reassured that your stimulus check may be getting to you a bit late but is indeed on its way to you. If not, at least you'll know a potential reason why it is running late.

Here are some of the top reasons you might not get a stimulus check - or don't get one by the expected deadline:

1. If you didn't pay child support, that stimulus check can be confiscated. Hopefully, you knew that. You did, didn't you?

Billions of dollars in stimulus or rebate checks are being confiscated by the government. According to some studies (sources listed at end of article) over half of that confiscated money goes to pay child support that was owed but never paid. That should be a pleasant surprise for the parents waiting on the child support payments. It may not be such a pleasant moment for those who couldn't pay child support or hoped to spend a rebate check some other way. Instead of getting the money to use for something else, they may get nothing. Zip. Zero dollars.

2. Filing taxes late can be another reason for the late arrival of a stimulus check

File those taxes late and you raise the chances of getting your rebate check late. That just makes sense. If you file your return on April 30th, you can't expect your stimulus check by in early May. If you do get one that quickly, consider yourself blessed - and very lucky. Odds aren't high, though.

The good news here is that filing late doesn't always mean that the taxpayer has to pay penalties or fines. In some cases, the IRS has extended filing deadlines or given extra time to get those payments into them. This means that when the stimulus check finally arrives, it could still be for the full amount and the taxpayer won't have any money deducted for late payment. If a taxpayer was affected by major flooding or other natural disasters or undue hardship, checking with the IRS could provide some potential reassurance about the possibility of paying late and still getting a stimulus check. You can find out if you fall into that group by checking here: www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=108362,00.html

As you can see, taxpayers in some areas of Indiana, Georgia, Illinois and many other areas of the country hard hit by floods or other natural disasers may get some extra time to get their taxes in. Just be sure to double check the regulations.

3. Some people didn't file for stimulus checks because they didn't know they were eligible to get one. The IRS is reaching out to the many retirees, veterans and social security recipients who may be eligible for at least $300 or more but didn't file. According to data collected so far, at lest 5.2 million veterans and others have not claimed their money. They also may not know they have until October 15 to file a 2007 tax return, mistakenly believing they may have missed the deadline.

4. The stimulus check is indeed in the mail - which is both the good news and the bad news.

A neighbor got her check a few days late. We got ours on time. There are reports at the IRS website that some checks are taking extra time to process but they don't seem to be the majority of cases. If you fall into the group of people getting your payment late, all sympathies to you but....at least you'll be getting that stimulus check...eventually.

5. You owe student loans

Yes, your rebate money can be taken from you because of this. It depends on the loan. As always, you'll want to get specifics from the IRS but paying student loans late can indeed hold up your stimulus check.

6. You made a mistake in calculating your tax return

Even if you use an accountant, mistakes can happen. You should be notified of this but double checking wouldn't hurt. Now that the frenzy of that original tax deadline is past, go back over your receipts and records Make sure you didn't miss anyting.

7. You never filed at all. Seems obvious, doesn't it? But it isn't obvious to an amazing number of people.

File a tax return electronically or by mail and get a potential rebate or stimulus check seems like obvious cause and effect reasoning. But some taxpayers apparently think there is some magic way of bypassing all that and expect the government to calculate their taxes and send them a check. I wouldn't count on that myself.

8. You don't know the deadline for your rebate check to arrive

Those vary a great deal, starting in May and going through July 11. If you opted for Direct Deposit, may get your stimulus check much earlier than if you opted for mail delivery. It simply takes more processing time for mail delivery. Also, some common sense goes a long way. If you mail delivery person can't get through flooded streets or you have a fallen tree blocking your street after a storm, there may be a delay in mail delivery due to that. Based on my experience, the mail delivery people go to extraordinary efforts to get our mail to us.

But they can't get around all obstacles. Last winter, for instance, there were several days when we didn't get mail since the trucks couldn't get up and down our streets due to heavy ice, snow and flooding.

9. It was automatically deposited in your bank account and you didn't notice

Ooops! Might be time to look into balancing that checking account info more often. But if you happened to discover the money was deposited, then you had that much extra money at some point, possibly in early May. Hopefully, you haven't spent it all yet....or if you did, you'd really wanted to do so.

Now you know why your stimulus check may not have arrived yet. As always, be sure to clarify any questions or concerns you have directly with the IRS. Sources listed below or you can call (800) 829-1040 to get information about your area and the proper department in the IRS to answer your questions.

Sources:
1. Internal Revenue Service website at www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=180250,00.html
Stimulus Process Schedule for checks processed by April 15

2. Internal Revenue Service website update on June 26 about tax relief for disaster situations: www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=108362,00.html

3. Wis Channel 10 News (info about confiscated checks) June 25 at: www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp