Retailers want your rebate check
Over the next several weeks, the government is expected to mail out $100 billion in stimulus rebates. Retail stores and electronics makers are already plotting to take that money away. Jill Barshay reports.
A customer looks at a display of flat screen televisions. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Scott Jagow: If you haven't filed your taxes - and you're not doing it today -- you need to fill out IRS form 4868. Of course, if you get a six-month extension, your rebate check will also be delayed. The government will be mailing out a hundred billion dollars in checks. And retailers are already plotting ways to take that money away from you. Jill Barshay reports.
Jill Barshay: For the first time, Sony Electronics has dedicated an entire advertising campaign to tax season. Megan Bafford is a marketing executive there. She wants Americans to spend their tax refunds on high definition televisions.
Megan Bafford: We wanted to change and create a new selling season for TVs where there really wasn't one in the past.
Struggling retailers are praying the tax rebates will be a lifeline in these tough times. Home Depot is asking Americans to "invest" their rebate checks in eco-friendly products. Nick Souleles is a professor at the Wharton School of Business. He said Americans spent two-thirds of the stimulus rebates of 2001.
Nick Souleles: The largest category of spending was apparel and then food and health. This time we're likely to see more spending on durables.
That's because this year's rebate checks -- at $1,200 dollars per couple -- are twice as large as those in 2001.
In New York, I'm Jill Barshay for Marketplace.
