Where Is My Rebate Check?

If you moved recently, here's how to make sure your money arrives at your new address.

By Kevin McCormally, Editorial Director, Kiplinger.com

May 9, 2008

As the government begins to dump 88 million tax rebate checks in the mail today, there's growing anxiety among taxpayers who have moved since they filed their 2007 returns.

Will their economic stimulus payments be forwarded to their new addresses? Or will the checks, as Elvis sang so famously, be returned to sender, address unknown? How can they help jump start the economy if the money winds up back at the U.S. Treasury?

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With millions of Americans moving each month (more than 40 million change of address forms were filed with the U.S. Postal Service last year), this is no small matter. And there's plenty of chatter filled with misinformation on the Web. "Experts" are happy to warn that rebate checks will not be forwarded to new addresses. Worries are further fanned by some state revenue department Web sites that warn that state tax refunds will not be forwarded.

The facts on forwarding

Rest assured: If you moved -- and filed a change of address form with the postal service -- your rebate check should find its way to your mailbox.

We say should because no system is perfect, and for this one to work, you must file the form in time for the change to be on the National Change of Address (NCOA) registry before the IRS mails your check. (See the table at the end of this story for the timetable for mailing checks. It's based on the last two digits of your Social Security number.)

The IRS says that if your name is on the NCOA two weeks before the agency cuts your rebate check (and the name and address match exactly), then it's likely your address will be updated in the IRS files and your rebate will be sent to the new address.

If your name gets on the list after the check is mailed, the Postal Service says it will redirect your rebate to the new address. A Postal Service spokeswoman says forwarding should work even if the name on the check does not precisely match the name on the NCOA.

The key for forwarding is the address. That is, if the change of address form requests that mail addressed to Mary Smith, 161 Main Street, Anytown, Kansas, should go to 100 State Street, Anytown, Oklahoma, then a rebate addressed to John Smith at the Kansas address will be delivered to the Oklahoma address.

Finding a lost rebate

This is the same system used for federal tax refunds and, still, more than 100,000 are returned to the IRS each year as undeliverable. Although that's a tiny percentage of the 100 million tax refunds, an IRS spokesman notes that "if one of the undelivered checks is yours, it's one too many."

Sometimes checks are returned to the IRS because the taxpayer has moved without leaving a forwarding address. Sometimes it's because of an error made when transcribing the address from the tax return.

When refunds boomerang, the IRS again checks the NCOA list to try to connect taxpayers with their money. The same effort will be made to put wayward rebates in taxpayers' pockets.

If you have moved since you filed your 2007 return, be sure to file a change of address form with the post office. If you're a belts-and-suspenders type, you can also file a Form 8822, the IRS's official change of address form. (That should be unnecessary if you file with the Postal Service, but ...)

If you haven't received your rebate within a week of the time it was supposed to have been mailed, check the IRS's Where's My Stimulus Payment tool. To know when your rebate is supposed to be dropped in the mail, check this table.

Although the IRS plans to start mailing checks May 9 -- a week ahead of the original schedule -- the agency says it's sticking with the schedule shown here. You might want to check the IRS tool a week or so early, though, to see if your check is on the way.

What if, despite your best efforts, your rebate doesn't make it to your mailbox? Thankfully, not all is lost. You'll get your money when you file your 2008 return next Spring. Remember, the rebate is really a prepayment of a tax credit on 2008 returns. Taxpayers who don't get their money this year will collect next spring.

The check is in the mail

The IRS began mailing tax stimulus checks on May 9 to taxpayers who filed 2007 returns and did not have their refund (if any) directly deposited into a bank account. The schedule for payments is based on the last two digits of a taxpayer's Social Security number. If you filed a joint return, the last two digits of the first number shown on your form are what matter.

A few days before the date shown here for your rebate, you may want to check the IRS Where's My Stimulus Payment tool to see if the check is in the mail. To know how big of a check to expect, use our tax rebate calculator.

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