Are you serious a penalty on top of all of that. Geeze maybe I won't tell her that part, she'll have a panic attack or something.
-Thanks

I am no expert, but I seriously doubt there will be a penalty, or interest, unless it takes her too long to pay it back. In MY OPINION, the IRS will work with her and she just has to give them a reasonable pay schedule and stick to it. Like 100 dollars a month. This is of course, just opinion, but she shouldn't freak out about it. It was the IRS mistake, which means they will work with her, but she will have to pay the money back if she was not supposed to get a check. Just tell her to prepare to have to start making payments to the IRS if and when they get their act together.

Yea, Norrin's right. I was just (slightly) kidding. Still, it's a f***in' shame that people are afraid of their own government. And I wouldn't put it past the IRS to mess with her, or to make her feel like it's her fault.

I'm too lazy to find the link, but I remember reading a story about a guy who received a refund much larger than he calculated. He called the IRS to find out what to do. Of course, ask two different IRS agents what the law is and you'll get two different answers, and the one he talked to told him the refund was correct. So, he deposited the check. Several months later, he gets a letter from the IRS telling him they made a mistake and he has to pay the money back plus interest. I'm willing to admit I can't verify this story, and it might be an urban legend, but again I wouldn't put it past the IRS.

We need to get rid of that organization.

I see, so even though it was not necessarily his fault he still had to pay it back. I think that it is so messed up, they make the mistake (even though there should be no mistakes since it is other peoples money they are dealing with, and they could only make a mistake if they weren't careful and if they weren't careful they obviously don't really care) and so those thousands of people that did not get theirs will have to wait and thoes who did in all honesty will have to pay it back.......what a messed up government huh?

Ok, I know you say you are not expert but, that seems like something the IRS would do. So is she better off contacting the Irs to tell them about the mistake or just not say anything and see if they catch it? The reason I ask is because if she says something, they are more likely to look into it and find a mistake, you know what I mean. As to if she does not say anything and they are not as likely to catch it since they have obviouslty been making many other stimulus mistakes.
-Thanks

That is advice I do not care to give.

Some decisions people have to make for themselves.

Ok, well I talked with her today and she says that she has contacted the IRS vis email and is waiting for thier reply in the next 48 hours. I guess we will see how it goes.
-Thanks

Whats interesting is that economists are saying the stimulus wasnt needed. The economy has already corrected itself. Still, itll be nice to get some money back finally. Mine should come in next week, but I have to use it to buy some liability insurance, ah well.

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Elminate all taxes on income and replace with a national sales tax.