why no, I don't understand at all
I opened the notice from the IRS this morning (the one that has "PAYMENT" in big red letters across the back flap) and was greeted with a large red header reading "Understanding Your Economic Stimulus Payment." The figure listed in the body of the letter was $600 less than I was expecting after reading all the lists of modifying factors I could find. I checked our bank account and verified that we'd gotten the smaller figure, then called the IRS (whee!). I spoke to a nice lady in the Economic Stimulus Package customer service area, who told me there's a calculator online to determine the amount. I pulled our 2007 return and gave her the numbers to fill in. She came up with the larger amount, too, and left me on hold for a while to see if she could figure out what was up. After fifteen minutes, she still didn't know what had happened, so she shunted me over to a regular rep. Who was sort of a witch. I explained that our check was exactly $600 less than the figure from the calculator, at which point she very bitchily said, "You got the amount you're entitled to." I told her another IRS person had just told me I was entitled to more, according to their own stupid calculator. She got a little less snotty and asked for our phone number so someone could contact us.