You've Got Less Than Five Days, Kids...

It's April 11th. Why haven't you filed your taxes? If you have, well done. If you filed and you gave away some of your money for a refund loan, shame! It took less than 10 days for my refund to be direct deposited into my bank account in January. My state refund took even less time. Don't give away your money!

Did you make less than $54,000 last year? If you're reading this blog, chances are you did. Did you know that you qualify to file your taxes online for free? I used used H&R Block's Taxcut Free File (other companies are available) to file my federal return & the CA Franchise Tax Board's CalFile for my state return. If you're not in California, find the website for your state's tax board, chances are you can file for free through them.

I'm sure everyone's heard the buzz about the Economic Stimulus Rebate. What you may not know is that you'll receive it faster if you opt to receive your refund via direct deposit. If you haven't filed yet, make sure you choose to have your refund direct deposited, that way your stimulus rebate will be direct deposited as well, and you'll receive it earlier.

Once you've filed your taxes, you can use the IRS's Rebate Calculator to determine how much of a rebate you'll be receiving.

Here's the payment schedule for the rebates:
DIRECT DEPOSIT
Last two SSN digits:
00 through 20 Receive Payment on: May 2
21 through 75 Receive Payment on: May 9
76 through 99 Receive Payment on: May 16

PAPER CHECK
Last two SSN digits:
00 through 09 Payment Mailed by: May 16
10 through 18 Payment Mailed by: May 23
19 through 25 Payment Mailed by: May 30
26 through 38 Payment Mailed by: June 6
39 through 51 Payment Mailed by: June 13
52 through 63 Payment Mailed by: June 20
64 through 75 Payment Mailed by: June 27
76 through 87 Payment Mailed by: July 4
88 through 99 Payment Mailed by: July 11

Good luck, and don't wait so long next year!