hr: Money

Photo Credit: PPDIGITAL

Starting Monday, in an attempt to offset the rising costs of food and gas, the government will distribute tax rebate checks to tax-payers.

“This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we’re seeing at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and will also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown,” President George Bush said Friday.

The rebate will serve as a one-time tax cut based on tax-payers’ 2007 incomes. By July, the Treasury will have disbursed more than $110 billion to 130 million taxpayers.

This, the government says, will hopefully stimulate the flagging economy by putting some extra cash in people’s pockets.

As to who will get the first checks will depend on the two digits of their Social Security numbers, when they filed their ‘07 tax forms and whether they’ve chosen to have them directly deposited to their own accounts.

Taxpayers who opt for direct deposit will get their payments soonest. These checks are expected to have already been deposited into the bank accounts of 7.4 million people by the end of next week.

The expectation is that most people will have received their payments by July 11.