WASHINGTON – Uncle Sam says the check’s in the mail – almost.
New York taxpayers can start looking for their tax-refund checks from the Internal Revenue Service in late July, but some may have to wait until September.
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, referring to reports the mass mailing won’t begin until September, said yesterday he’s instructed officials to speed it up.
“I am looking for ways that we might be able to do better than that,” he told reporters.
Treasury Department spokeswoman Michele Davis said the IRS will mail out letters in early July informing all taxpayers who filed their returns in April the amount of rebate, if any, they can expect.
The actual checks will start going out the last week in July at the rate of about 11 million a week, Davis said.
She said the full mailing will take about 10 weeks, using extra check-writing machines borrowed from the Pentagon. The last checks will be posted by the end of September.
Bush has said he wants money in people’s pockets quickly to help pay for soaring gas and energy prices and to help stimulate the sagging economy.
The checks, $300 for an individual, $500 for single parents and $600 per married couple, are part of the $1.35 trillion tax cut passed by Congress last week.
For a Manhattan family of four, the refund would pay for a day at Yankee Stadium: four seats behind home plate, parking, beer, sodas for the kids and hot dogs, and leave $300 for eight tanks of gas (at $1.90 per gallon) or enough to pay off five electric bills (roughly $62 a month, according to Con Ed).
The refund applies to the current 2001 tax year, but the amount will be calculated based on year 2000 income-tax returns.
Any miscalculations, such as a refund sent to someone who doesn’t earn any money this year and, therefore, doesn’t qualify for one, will be corrected next year.
Not everyone will get refunds. Citizens for Tax Justice, a grassroots group opposed to the Bush tax cut, estimates that about 33 million people earning up to $44,000 don’t pay federal income taxes, so they won’t qualify.
The quickie refund has been criticized as being too expensive: it will cost Uncle Sam at least $110 million just to process and mail the checks. Critics also complain that it’s a logistical nightmare.