Word To The Wise On the Taking Stimulus Benefits ...

Here's a great article answering commonly-asked questions about the new stimulus package that passed the senate and is expect to pass the house - but what I didn't see (unless I overlooked it) - is whether or not if we take any of the benefits - including the $1200 stimulus check and unemployment - will  it be counted as income on next year's taxes?

I'm not 100% certain of that, but it's likely - it's the reason I didn't take the Florida state stimulus after the hurricanes.

(FYI, I also didn't claim it on my federal taxes because being that my income was under a certain amount, those type of deductions didn't help, I just took the standard deduction amount.)

(It wasn't much and wouldn't have saved me financially, anyway, because offshore outsourcing came next for my field and was even worse than hurricanes financially  lol.)

The temptation may be to grasp at straws, any job or "free gift" that comes your way, when times are desperate - *but be careful* - more often than not, if things appear too good to be true, they probably are, there are often unspoken strings attached which obligate you  - and you don't want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire by doing so, right?  

We live and learn - I mostly learned by grasping at straws during these times, so trust me on this ;)