Is the term you're using "not paying taxes"the same as the term I used when referring to "tax liability" ?

What if you "pay taxes" each week but have a reduced ...or zero (?) tax LIABILITY at the end of year? i didn't think the two were the same.

 Here is a situation that confuses me:

 A lady I work with has a 21 year old son, who has a 19 year old girlfriend and they have an 8 month old baby.  The girl made 4,000 dollars last year, not sure how much the guy made, but I don't imagine it was a whole lot.  The girl had about 1,000 dollars taken out of her check for federal taxes.  When his mother (my coworker) did their taxes, it came up to them getting 6,000 dollars back.  Now, I don't understand how that works.  My coworker said it was for earned income credit.  I don't know what that is because I've never been eligible for it.

Another lady that I work with has a grown daughter that has 2 kids and is not married.  The daughter lied to get a Habitat for Humanity house, she gets earned income credit, and untaxed child support from one of the fathers.  Furthermore, she is using state resources to attempt to sue the other father for child support.  This woman's daughter literally makes 50-60 thousand dollars a year and regularly gets back 10,000 dollar tax refunds.  Hmm, think there might be a problem with the whole tax system?

It's basically a straight assistance program for low income families (and single workers, to a much lesser extent).  Rather than raise the minimum wage, the government provides generous tax credits to low income working families.  Think of it as a way to smooth out the bumps between welfare programs and working.

 However, the big money is only if you have kids.  If you're a single worker and make little, you get maybe a few hundred bucks back at most- meant as a sort of "giveback" of your other payroll taxes.

 Don't get me started on what I think of the program, but that's the rationale anyway.

 Let's not forget these important words from the IRS' website...

"proposed advance payment checks, known informally as rebates"

How many people will benefit in the long run and how many will find this really wasn't helpful at all, I wonder.

I know this likely won't be helpful to us. We are self-employed and I am worried now about the amount we will have to pay in. I am thinking if they straighten this out and we do get a rebate then it's going in the savings until 2008 taxes or to estimated payments.

Anytime I hear the word "rebate", that starts the alarm bells ringing for me.  If there is a "rebate" involved, then that means the thing was over priced to begin with.  If we are getting a "rebate" on our taxes, it means the taxes are too high or they aren't managing the money right.

Rebate, refund, stimulus package...with the disasterous deficit that has been building in our country for many administrations, this is not money coming to taxpayers from overpayments or from the rainy day jar...it is the same as one of us getting a cash adavance from a credit card...it is borrowed money that will have to be paid back at some point in time...whether by us, or by our great grandchildren.  There is a price to be paid for living in a house of cards, built on deficit spending...this is nothing more than somebody borrowing off of the credit card, for us, and fully expecting us to pay it back in the form of increased fees, taxes and spending cuts.  Unfortunately.