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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Some Tax-Payers Excluded From Bush's 'Rebate' |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sarah Kanouse
Email: kanouse (nospam) uiuc.edu (unverified!)
Phone: 384-5346
Address: 604 S. Race, Urbana |
12 Sep 2001
Modified: 14 Sep 2001 |
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Imagine your surprise to open that much-heralded envelope from the US Treasury and find, instead of your $300 tax 'rebate', a letter explaining why you don't qualify. It's not that you didn't work or pay taxes--it's that you've been declared an 'alien.' |
Imagine your surprise to open that much-heralded envelope from the US Treasury and find, instead of your $300 tax 'rebate', a letter explaining why you don't qualify. It's not that you didn't work or pay taxes--it's simply that you've been declared an 'alien.' Well, that's what happened to several friends of mine and potentially hundreds of University of Illinois Graduate Students whose educational visas classify them as 'non-resident aliens' whom Bush passed over when dishing out the cash.
Hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide have been excluded from the tax 'rebate' program because of the residency requirement. Any non-US citizen on a work or educational visa or enrolled in a guest worker program is not a permanent resident. Although these workers pay income and sales taxes and contribute to the economy as producers and consumers, they are usually underserviced by all levels of government. The tax 'rebate' program is only the latest example. However, passing over hard-working non-citizens in doling out the dough make Bush's refund program smell even more like a stinky vote-buying strategy.
Note: The word 'refund' appeared in inverted commas in this commentary because the money was actually an advance on your 2001 tax refund. In other words, your tax refund come April will be $300 smaller, or, if you overpay less than the amount of your 'rebate,' you'll end up oweing the difference. Maybe you should put off that shopping spree. Thanks again, Georgie. |
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I'm betting..... |
by John Wason
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
14 Sep 2001
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.....that if your income consists of a disability pension
(on which you're required to pay income taxes), you don't
qualify for a tax "rebate" either. Not that I give a damn
one way or the other anyway.
Bush'll be wanting all of that money back now, anyway, and
more, because he has a half dozen countries that he's going
to want to bomb back into the Stone Age, and that's costly. |
