Sch M

[taxjungle]

Client has no wages, just U.S. Railroad Retirement reported on Form RR -1099R. He turned 61 in 2009. He received Railroad Retirement benefits in March 2009 retroactive back to January (3 months).

My question is: Since TP wasn't receiving RR retirement for Nov & Dec 2008 or for Jan 2009 (TP didn't receive his Jan. '09 retirement until March 2009) and did not receive the One-Time Economic payment of $250 from Social Security, would he qualify to receive the $250 payment on Sch M Line 11 as an employee of the US Government or any US state or local government from work not covered by social security?
**** Or does U.S. Railroad retirement even qualify as Government?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this.

[AJsTax]

No

As i understand it, RR retirement is handled the same as SS and if they did not receive a payment they were entitled to the only way is to get it is to contact the persons handling the retirement. If he was not eligible at that time then he just does not get it. No way to give it on the tax return.

[taxjungle]

Sch M

Thank you for your response.

[dyne]

Tell the client that he can contact: www.rrb.gov/recovery/ regarding failure to receive
the Economic Benefit Payment. However yesterday a long-time client and friend insisted
that neither he or his wife received the $250 from the social security administration.
He went online to SSA and called to report that they had not received the $250. Later he
discovered that they DID receive the $250. We can LEARN from this.

[taxjungle]

Sch M

Thank you dyne.

[Chief]

Econonic Recovery Payment

I had a client who insisted that hedid not receive the payment. I filed his return and it was rejected. From now on if the client was receiving ss last year I will file as though the payment was received. Enough of this foolishness!!!!!

[Bees Knees]

I had a client who insisted that hedid not receive the payment. I filed his return and it was rejected. From now on if the client was receiving ss last year I will file as though the payment was received. Enough of this foolishness!!!!!

I don’t believe IRS knows whether or not taxpayers received the $250, otherwise they would have it available on their website for people to check on, just like last year.

I think what is happening is IRS has it programmed into their computers that anyone receiving Social Security is automatically assumed to have received the $250, regardless of what actually happened.

Either way, this whole issue is dumb. I agree that we should assume our clients received the payments unless our clients can prove they did not.

[Jiggers]

They know

I don’t believe IRS knows whether or not taxpayers received the $250, otherwise they would have it available on their website for people to check on, just like last year.

I think what is happening is IRS has it programmed into their computers that anyone receiving Social Security is automatically assumed to have received the $250, regardless of what actually happened.

Either way, this whole issue is dumb. I agree that we should assume our clients received the payments unless our clients can prove they did not.

The IRS knows. What about VA payments that are tax free and not shown on the return? The IRS is rejecting those returns if the Schedule M doesn't show the $250.

[dyne]

I agree with Bees Knees in that if a client presents a 1099-SSA to me for 2009,
I am assuming that he or they received the $250 Economic Benefit Payment. Perhaps
if they received a small amount I should ask them if they began receiving the
SS benefits AFTER Jan 2009? So far I have gotten no rejects from IRS. If I asked if they
received the $250 many of them would deny that they ever got it.
An IRS website recently stated that IRS did not plan to have a website
where we could verify whether the taxpayer received the Economic Benefit Payment or not.
This is a mess and we will have the same mess NEXT year!