Missing stimulus check

[LDE]

I'm hoping for some advice from folks inside the IRS on this one, or familiar with its workings.

I'm separated from my wife, but we're still friendly and we file jointly. Between me, her, and her son (not my bio son) we claim three exemptions and are entitled to $1500 in "stimulus."

She's been having financial troubles and borrowed her portion of that figure in advance, so the whole $1500 belongs to me. While the attorneys here probably blow that on a night out, for me (an editor for a large institution by day, an entrepreneur the rest of the time) it's a significant sum, as I'm sure federal employees will also appreciate.

When I filed my 1040 form I made a small error—$13 in the government's favor—when calculating self-employment tax. (Unfortunately my business, while growing, doesn't make enough to employ an accountant, so I do my own taxes. This is the first error requiring adjustment in about a decade on my part. Too bad it happened in the year of the "stimulus" checks, an unbelievably stupid way to goose the economy, IMO.)

Based on the last two digits of my Social, I should have received the check the 2nd week of June. At that point I had not been notified of my math error. When it failed to arrive, I called the IRS, navigating through its robot phone menus. The recording told me that I would not get a check at all, because one of the SSNs on the form did not match one of the names.

I dug out my copy of the form and verified that nowhere had I made a mistake in the SSNs. I then navigated through the ridiculous phone menus designed to prevent you from reaching a real person, by pretending I had a problem with a refund, not the stimulus. (If your problem is with the stimchek, you are shepherded through an automated menu and you're never supposed to get a live person.)

After 45 minutes on hold, I reached one person from the IRS who connected me with another line where I spent about 20 more minutes on hold. I was reassured that the recorded message was false and informed of my math error. She told me I would receive a $13 check that weekend correcting the mistake in my account and that the stimchek was delayed due to the math error; at first she didn't want to tell me even an estimated date of mailing, but I pressed, she accessed a computer file, and told me the mailout date was not exact, but the check would be mailed out "around July 11."

I received a warning notice in my mailbox from the Postal Service that checks have been stolen from mailboxes in my area, so I'm intent on watching for the check to prevent pilfering. In addition, I've had three serious car repairs in the last six weeks, one the result of a botched prior repair, and could really use the check.

When it failed to arrive as of July 21, I called IRS again and spent another 65 minutes on the phone, 50 minutes of which was on hold. The functionary I reached this time told me that the July 11 date was also false information; there was no way to know when the check would be mailed and no way to find out.

So I called my U.S. Representative's office for assistance. In order for them to proceed, I needed to submit a federal release called a PAF. As my car was in the shop, and as his nearest office (in my Texas gerrymandered district) is 36 miles away (one way), I asked if I could scan the form and attach to e-mail. The U.S. House server rejected it five times, when sending from two different e-mail accounts (and, yes, the problem was at house.gov, as I found out after another 50 minutes on the phone trying to resolve the problem with my e-mail provider).

So yesterday I wrote a letter to Rep. McCaul, complaining about the terrible customer service from the IRS, the Copyright Registry (7 months to register copyright!) and the incompetence of his own staff as well as the absurdity of the House blocking constituent e-mails. Of course, his Web site says I should expect to wait up to 45 days for them to act. This is the kind of help you can expect when districts are drawn so congressmembers face not even token opposition (the Democrats didn't even contest the seat 2 years ago, except for a last-minute write-in candidate who had no party support). This criticism applies to the safe districts engineered by both parties in Texas.

Anyway, does anyone have any advice on how to proceed? Near as I can figure, I should not expect to receive the check before December. Is that about right? I can't believe the extent to which IRS is willing to punish me for paying them $13 too much. Of course, it's not deliberate on their part, but that's the effect: profoundly destimulating as I can't even budget for the rest of 2008.

Also, let's say they mail the check next week and it's stolen, and I don't know it's been stolen until it fails to arrive by January. Is there any hope of recouping the money, or am I just totally out $1500?

So far, this has cost me about 10 hours of time, plus had I had that money I could have rented a car rather than lose a day of work (at my day job), so I'm out hundreds of dollars so far over a $13 mistake. My last dealings with IRS were about a decade ago and I found them efficient, competent, and fair. Obviously the Bush administration has wrecked the IRS as they've done to every other federal agency I've had to deal with (Registry of Copyrights, EPA, etc.). Note to all the GOP activists here: it's quite inappropriate to flame me as a "Marxist moonbat" or your other snarls you so freely employ against people who don't support your failed approach to government. Disagree, if you like, but namecalling is the refuge of people with no argument to stand on. Obviously, as a small-business person who (I've mentioned before) is still married to a refugee from Castro's Cuba, I'm no Marxist.

Thanks for any advice you can offer,

LDE

[Quixote]

I sent you a PM.

[Kimokeo]

Imagine 3 returns filed. One for a refund of $5000, one owing $5000, and one owing $5000 with a check for $5000 attached.

Now, which has priority for processing?

The refund has priority. Why? Interest on money to be paid. If the refund is issued promptly, no interest is paid.

Ok, which has the next priority? The one owing $5000. Why? Because you need to issue a bill for collection.

That leaves the paid-in-full to be processed last.

Now. Take each type and multiply it by 100,000.

You have 500,000 refunds, 500,000 bills, and 500,000 even.

Let's say you can process 100,000 returns a week and these 1,500,000 returns were received on April 15th. Figuring the last digits of your SSN, when is your stimulus refund expected to be issued. Will your return be processed before that date comes?

That's the problem. The dates work well with refund returns. If you owe, chances are, the stimulus refund won't be there by that projected date. It can't - the amount is based on the return and it needs to be processed first. Then, after its processed, you receive a bill and the Stimulus finally appears weeks later.

That leaves the even-returns last for processing and last for stimulus refunds. Now, you had 100,000 returns a week and it took 10 weeks to get through the first two types. 10 weeks after April 15th. That means the end of June.

THIS is all hypothetical but I hope it helps.

Also, imagine 1,000,000 people not receiving their stimulus refunds. take 10% of them and put them on the phones asking about the delay.

The number of phone operators didn't increase when the ACT was passed to give away the money. So, the normal level of operators answering the phones are now swamped with calls about stimulus refunds. When those phone lines get overloaded, people look for other phone numbers. Now, the phones that were meant for other specific-type calls is now overloaded with stimulus refund calls.

Care for another stimulus refund year?