Rebate excludes taxpayers with foreign spouses

SAN FRANCISCO — When Maulit Shelat heard about the Bush administration's plan to pump up the economy by sending out stimulus checks, he sat down with his wife and drew up a list of priorities: first up, remodeling the bathroom.

But Shelat is married to a foreigner who still hasn't completed the often years-long process that allows her to apply for a Social Security number. Her not having that number makes even him ineligible for the tax rebate checks that started going out last week because they filed jointly.

He is among an estimated hundreds of thousands of taxpayers — from legal immigrants to soldiers based abroad — who won't be getting a share of the stimulus package because of a provision aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from getting rebates.

"I would have fed this economy as well," said Shelat, an Indian chemical engineer living with his wife and two children in the Buffalo, N.Y., area. "We live within this economy, work, pay taxes, do everything by the book. Whatever the reasons for giving this economic stimulus package, they apply to us as well."

When lawmakers decided to send out the checks, ranging from $300 to $600 per adult taxpayer, plus another $300 for each child, they formulated it so only taxpayers who have Social Security numbers would qualify.

The rule unintentionally caught many taxpayers who would have qualified for the bonus, except they filed jointly with a spouse whose immigration status doesn't allow them to have a Social Security number. Among them are some of the 288,000 troops stationed overseas who may have married a foreigner.

"An American soldier who has married someone from another country and is waiting for an (immigration) petition to get approved — that soldier not getting that check is stupid," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., whose district includes Silicon Valley, home of many high-tech workers who fell through the rebate cracks.

It's not clear how many members of the Armed Forces posted abroad have married foreigners. But officials in overseas bases say they can't do anything about the Internal Revenue Service's policy.

"The U.S. military doesn't have any input in IRS practices and procedures," said Air Force Major Pamela Cook, with the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. "It's true that service members and anybody who is married to someone without a Social Security number is affected. But it's not in our lane to talk."