The Bottom Line

Like I mentioned last week, one of the key parts of the new stimulus is changes to personal taxes. For your edification:

Individual Tax Return

The stimulus generally won’t affect your 2008 returns due in April. The provisions may affect your 2009 returns due April 2010.

“Making Work Pay” Tax Provision

Remember what I said about federal withholding on your paychecks? As part of the stimulus, the government will withhold less tax every week/biweek/month. So you’ll get to keep more of your paycheck during the year, amounting to $400 for singles, instead of the one-time $300 or $600 stimulus check from 2008.

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Uncategorized stimulus, Taxes

Video: On the stimulus act

President Obama and Congress sure have been busy in the month-plus time they’ve been in office, what with the super nifty new stimulus act being passed on February 17. Some of the act’s much touted provisions relate to personal taxes (to be discussed next week) and making college more affordable. This act, aptly titled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or “stimulus”) of 2009, is incredibly long and dense. Here at The Bottom Line, we skim and Google the relevant parts  of it so you don’t have to.

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Uncategorized financial aid, stimulus

According to this article in The Jackson Sun, if you received some tax rebate (read: stimulus checks under the Bush administration) in calendar year 2008 as part of your 2007 taxes, you may still be eligible to receive the rest of the rebate, provided you’re eligible.

If you received a check from the Treasury for less than $600 last year as part of the stimulus, you can check with the IRS to see if you qualify for the balance. Here’s how:

1. Go here to find out the amount of the 2008 payment. You will be using information from the return that you mailed last year (2008) for 2007’s financial data.
2. Fill out the form, and the next page will show you the dollar amount that you will need to enter into the second calculator.
3. The second form is the Recovery Rebate Credit Calculator.
4. Go through the form, fill out the info and the IRS will tell you what your eligibility is based on the information you provided to them about the form you’re filing in 2009, which is based off 2008’s numbers and different from the first form.

Good hunting!

Uncategorized stimulus, Taxes

With all the fireworks and theatrics surrounding the signing of the second stimulus bill, one would think that the economy would bounce right back. This has not been the case, however.

Recent figures from the International Monetary Fund show that, in fact, global growth this year is forecasted to fall to a measly .5% at best. In addition, the economy is not expected to rectify itself anytime in the next year to date. It doesn’t help that the stimulus plan is to be doled out over a period of eleven years.

What does this mean for you, my Locust Walk-walking friends? On Campus Recruiting is going to get even more stressful. Companies are going to cut costs and improve productivity where they can. Unpaid internships are going to become more and more valuable.

Be warned though, keeping the job is going to be as hard, or harder, as finding the position. Last semester, a lot of our friends who graduate this spring came back from summer internships with job offers from Merrill Lynch, breathing a sigh of relief when the merger with Bank of America (BOA) went through—I feel for our Lehman-offered friends. With Merill’s estimated value at $175 billion, their futures at the new company not only seemed secure, but also bright.

Unfortunately, it seems as if this dream empire is doomed to come crashing down. Today, Merill Lynch has a market capitalization of a mere $40 billion. Indeed it seems that Kenneth D.Lewis, BOA’s chief executive, has made a major mistake in his race to expand. With rumors of John Thain, the brains behind the Merill-BOA merger, asking for a $40 million bonus, it’s no wonder even he was ousted.

Uncategorized jobs, stimulus