Still Waiting on Your Rebate Check?

November 28, 2008 will stand as a day to remember for thousands of U.S. residents. While “Black Friday” usually brings consumers and shop-a-holics much needed joy, this year it might bring some taxpayers unnecessary heartache. As it stands right now, more than $266 million in tax rebate and regular tax refund checks are circulating through the mail system and eventually returned to the IRS because of bad mailing addresses. Can you contact the IRS and give them a correct mailing address? Absolutely……the catch, I’m afraid, is that you only have until November 28th to claim your money.

Most of the money that has not been delivered is from rebate checks. Now if you are like me, you were tracking that check and awaiting its arrival. Granted, it was not a lot of money (the average rebate around $583), but it was still some money. You would think during this economic flu that those owed money would be as proactive as they could be in obtaining any cash that is rightfully theirs.

If you are still waiting on a rebate check, you should go to the IRS's "Where's My Stimulus Payment?" online tracking tool. Once there, you can check the status of your stimulus check and receive instructions on how to update your mailing address. If you are not so internet savvy, they you can also do the same by calling the IRS at (866) 234-2942.

The IRS MUST mail out the remaining rebate checks by December 31st. This is why the IRS has established the November 28th address change cutoff date to ensure that it can update its records and meet the final mailing deadline.

If you haven’t received your check, you need to hurry…..don’t let this year’s “Black Friday” take on a completely new meaning.

Cheers!
Taxus