Treasury looking at where rebate checks will go

According to the Treasury Department, 131.8 million individuals and families would receive tax rebates under the recently passed economic stimulus package President Bush plans to sign into law this week.

A Treasury analysis of the measure's estimated $112 billion in rebate checks shows that the largest portion of the rebates would go to individual and joint filers in California, with 14.7 million recipients at a $12.4 billion cost. Following California is another large state, Texas, with $8.3 billion of the total cost going to 9.7 million tax filers. Florida and New York follow, with 8.3 million beneficiaries each; $6.8 billion in tax rebates will flow to Florida and $6.7 billion to New York.

Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania each have 5 million to 6 million beneficiaries. Nearly $5 billion worth of rebate checks will go to Illinois and Pennsylvania, while Ohio gets $4.4 billion and Michigan, $3.8 billion.

Bringing up the rear as far as rebate distribution include smaller states with lower populations such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Delaware, Vermont and Wyoming, all of which have fewer than 500,000 beneficiaries. Those states combine for about $1.7 billion of the total rebates.

The rebate checks are the centerpiece of the economic stimulus measure, which according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation would add $151.7 billion to this year's deficit. Under the bill, which cleared the House and Senate last week, individuals making less than $75,000 a year will be eligible for $600 rebates, and couples filing jointly will receive $1,200 if their combined income was $150,000 or less in 2007.

Above the $75,000-$150,000 threshold, the rebate check would be phased out. Families who qualify for the rebate will also receive $300 for each child who was under the age of 17 at the end of 2007.