Not too late to get your IRS stimulus rebate--if you qualify

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A lot of taxpayers missed out on getting their IRS economic stimulus rebate last year, even though they qualified.  If you're one of them, you'll be glad to know that there's a way to get your check.

There seem to be two big reasons people didn't get the payment they should have. Some people made a mistake on their tax return, such as an incorrect Social Security number for a dependent--and according to IRS rules, that disqualified them. Other people qualified for the payment last year, but wouldn't have qualified the previous year--but the IRS used your previous year's tax return to decide whether to send a check or not.

Whether it was for one of those two reasons or some other, if you qualified for a tax rebate last year, but didn't get one--or didn't get the full amount--you can fix it when you file your taxes this year.

The details are on these two IRS pages:

• Recovery Rebate Credit Information Center
• Questions and Answers about the Recovery Rebate Credit

The gist of the matter, though, is that you can figure out what the stimulus payment should have been, based on correct information and your actual status for 2008. If you got some stimulus money, but not the full amount, you subtract off the partial amount--but whatever stimulus you qualified for, but didn't get, goes on your return as a credit, and will be added to your refund (or deducted from whatever you owe).

Of course, if you didn't qualify for a stimulus payment, this doesn't help. But if you qualified, but didn't get the full payment you should have gotten, now you can fix it.