Seniors get nervous about filing tax returns

When you don’t normally file a federal income tax return, as some low-income taxpayers and some seniors do not, it can get nerve-racking to think about having to fill out a tax return now just to get a tax rebate.

“I haven’t owed anything since 1998. I don’t even get a 1040,” said Elsie Ring, a senior who lives outside the Cleveland area. She wasn’t even sure where to get a 1040 form. We agreed that she could get help from the AARP tax site at her senior center.

I’ve gotten more than 50 calls and e-mail from worried taxpayers. Many don’t know where to get forms, what they should do or where they should mail forms when they’re done filling them out.

The minimum rebate for a single person is $300, and the minimum is $600 for joint returns. The rebate would apply if the senior or other taxpayer has at least $3,000 in earned income, Social Security benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits, veterans’ disability compensation, pension or survivors’ benefits received from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2007.

Here is a step-by-step analysis that I hope will help. If you normally file a tax return, you just file the return as usual. Otherwise, follow these steps.

First, get a 1040A or 1040 form from a post office, local library, see www.irs.gov or call the Internal Revenue Service at 800-829-3676. If you’re filling out a form by hand, get the 1040A. If you’re using software, it might be easier to use a 1040. If you normally do not have to fill out a tax return, write STIMULUS PAYMENT across the top of the form.

Fill out your name, address, Social Security numbers for you and your spouse at the top of the form. You must enter the correct Social Security numbers.

Fill out the filing status. Fill out exemptions for yourself, spouse and dependents. If you are raising a family, be sure to list all qualifying children on line 6c to get any possible rebate money for them. Next, go to Line 14a of Form 1040A or to Line 20a of Form 1040.

Here’s where you list Social Security benefits. See the form that the Social Security Administration sent out earlier this year to report 2007 benefits, Form 1099-SSA.

People who do not have a Form 1099-SSA may estimate their annual Social Security benefits. You would take the monthly benefit and multiply it by the number of months that you received it in 2007.

If you normally do not have to file a return and do not owe taxes, you’re going to fill out the entire amount of Social Security benefits, plus other benefits like some veterans’ and Railroad Retirement benefits.

It is important to note that Supplemental Security Income or SSI cannot be used to count as qualifying income in order to get this economic stimulus rebate.

If this applies to you, see Form 1099-RRB for Railroad Retirement benefits to report those benefits on Line 14a of Form 1040A or Line 20a of Form 1040.

Or, if this applies to you, you’re going to need the sum of veterans’ disability compensation, pension or survivors’ benefits received from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2007. People can estimate the annual benefit by taking the monthly amount you receive and multiplying it by the number of months in 2007 that they received the benefits. Again, you’d enter veterans’ benefits on Line 14a of Form 1040A or Line 20a of Form 1040.

To get direct deposit, fill out Line 44b, 44c and 44d on the 1040A or Lines 74b, 74c and 74d of the 1040. Use numbers off the check — not the deposit slip.

Sign the return, date it, fill in your occupation and give a daytime phone number. If you’re filing a joint return, your spouse must sign the return as well.

If you are paying someone to prepare your return, make sure that person also signs the return and lists the preparer’s Social Security number or a Preparer Tax Identification Number and phone number.

Keep a copy of the return.

Mail the 1040A return to Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Kansas City, Mo. 64999-0015. You can mail the 1040 return to the same address but the ZIP code is different — 64999-0002.

Know that the first rebates checks won’t go out until May.

McClatchy Newspapers