This "snafu" making headlines is a good thing

Many Filers Confused by Stimulus Tax Credit

As the deadline approaches for filing tax returns, the process of claiming a tax break created by the stimulus package has proved to be more work than millions of people had bargained for.

The new tax credit, championed by President Obama as a follow-through on his campaign promise to provide broad-based tax relief, affects 95 percent of all Americans by cutting $400 from the total tax bill for individual filers and $800 for married couples.

In an effort to jump-start the sputtering economy by putting the money into people's pockets as quickly as possible, the government also decided to pay the credit upfront and instructed employers to reduce the amount of federal withholding deducted from workers' paychecks over the last year.


http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/109305/filers-confused-by-stimulus-credit?mod=taxes-advice_strategy

I got screwed by the stimulus and now owe several hundred $', where in previous years I would get a couple hundred back and simple apply that to the upcoming year. I had to adjust withholding and increase 401k contributions to help offset & try to keep some dollars. So what I gained last year in weekly pay, is all going back to the Treasury Department plus more.

For me it was a complete F*** Up.

I meant that the tea-partiers will now know, if they don't already, that Obama gave them a tax cut.

How on earth did you get screwed by the stimulus or was it self-inflicted?

just the change in weekly withholding done by those charming little tax tables that the IRS screwed up. So I got to pay and get to pay more. Actual income fell by a couple of hundred dollars from 08 to 09.

one had someone else decided what to take out on W2 (a long time ago) and was upset that I had to pay in. So, I now guesstimate more, and always have a refund.