Some married troops cannot get rebate checks

Some married troops cannot get rebate checks
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 13, 2008 9:03:55 EDT

If you are filing a joint tax return with a spouse who does not have a valid Social Security number, you cannot receive the economic stimulus rebate of up to $1,200 per married couple, plus $300 per qualifying child, according to IRS regulations.

The payments, which will be mailed out beginning in May, are an effort by the federal government to pump money back into the economy in the wake of the downturn sparked by the home mortgage crisis.

“Here in Japan, there are large numbers of (service) members married to non-U.S. citizens” who have Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, not Social Security numbers, Navy Master Chief Fire Controlman Robert Collins wrote in an e-mail.

Collins is a command financial specialist and a representative of the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program in Yokosuka.

According to the IRS, the law does not allow people who file a return that includes an ITIN to receive the stimulus payments.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/army_rebate_041208w/

since the rebates are intended (though not likely) to encourage people to spend the rebates to bump the US economy.

money in the U.S........

and the family lives over there. So I guess it would depend on the answer to that. Obviously your understanding is different, but there is no explicit information to determine who is correctly "reading" the information given.