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Congress agreed to include older Americans and other beneficiary groups in the 2008 Economic Stimulus Package, which includes rebates of $300 to $600 for individual taxpayers and $600 to $1,200 for joint filers. This includes Social Security beneficiaries, railroad retirees and veterans with payment benefits as well as older Americans who have part-time earned income.

These groups primarily include people who normally don’t file income tax, but in order to receive a rebate, a person is required to file a 2007 Federal tax form and have at least $3,000 worth of qualifying income.

It is important that people who receive these types of benefits, but normally don’t file income tax, do so. The Internal Revenue Service will use information found on the tax form to determine eligibility for the rebate as well as the amount received.

There are four most likely situations for eligibility:

1. If you’ve already filed income tax and you have $3,000 in qualified income, you don’t need to do anything. The stimulus payment will be factored in as credit to tax burden/credit.

2. If you were not planning to file income tax, until now, but will easily qualify because you have more than $3,000 income from any combination of Social Security income, Railroad retirement income, Veterans benefit payments or part-time earned income, you need to file a 2007 Tax Form, entering Social Security, Railroad Retirement or Veterans benefits on line 20a of Form 1040 or line 14a of Form 1040A, which may be a quicker and simpler option.

3. If you have not filed yet, but need to list $3,000 in income requirements (which can be total for both spouses) to qualify, including part-time earned income, Social Security income, Railroad retirement income, or Veterans benefit payments, you need to file a 2007 Tax Form, entering Social Security, Railroad Retirement or Veterans benefits on Line 20a of Form 1040 or line 14a of Form 1040A, which may be a quicker and simpler option.

4. If you’ve already filed a 2007 tax return, but you showed insufficient income to qualify for $3,000 income requirement, because you did not include Social Security benefits, Railroad retirement income, Veterans benefits, etc., you need to file an amendment using tax Form 1040X.

If you still have questions on how to apply for the tax rebate or what your next steps should be there are two places you can go for help: the IRS Tax Counseling for the Elderly at 1-800-829-1040 or call the AARP Tax-Aide program at 1-888-227-7669.