If you have a comfortable lifestyle, a steady source of income and a grill that’s chock-full of food this holiday, the federal rebate program is probably the last thing on your mind.

But to many other MoneyLine readers — who are struggling with the skyrocketing cost of food, fuel and other items, and whose financial fate is uncertain amid a shaky job market — the rebates are a kind of lifeline.

Small wonder, then, that readers continue to bombard MoneyLine with rebate questions, such as the following from a woman in Cranston, who has raised a new rebate issue:

Q: My husband and I have been married for 26 years. I never changed my Social Security name to my married name, but we file every year together and never a problem. . . . Now this time they are telling me I can’t get [the rebate] and I really need it . . . .

— C.G., Cranston

A: You’ll have to wait until next year to obtain your rebate. Here’s the deal:

The Internal Revenue Service is processing rebates based on the information contained on your 2007 federal income-tax return.

As part of that process, IRS computers use information from the Social Security Administration to check whether each name on the return matches the Social Security number that corresponds to that name.

If there’s a mismatch, a glitch arises in the rebate process, said National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson.

“This situation commonly occurs when a spouse has changed his or her name as a result of a change in marital status, but has not notified the Social Security Administration of that change,” Olson told Congress at a hearing last month.

In a normal year, the IRS can correct its records by looking at its own data and continue to process the return, said Olson, who serves as the independent voice of the taxpayer within the IRS.

But under pressure to distribute the rebates as quickly as possible, the IRS isn’t taking the time to manually resolve each such issue.

As a result, people in this situation “have no recourse other than claiming a credit on a 2008 return with a valid name and [Social Security number] match,” she said.

What does that mean? Keep in mind that the rebate technically represents a one-time bonus on your 2008 return — the return you’ll file early next year. But the IRS is paying out that bonus this year, in advance, in the form of a rebate.

If you don’t receive your rebate this year, however, you generally may obtain it by claiming a rebate-related credit on your return early next year.

How will that work? Let’s say you normally get a $500 federal income-tax refund every year. This year, you’re eligible for a $600 rebate, but you don’t receive it because of the glitch described above.

What happens when you file your return early next year? You’ll get your usual $500 refund, plus a $600 rebate-related credit, for a total refund of $1,100.

The frustrating thing here is that you’ll have to wait.

Q: Do we get a rebate if we make too much money? Is there a limit to the amount of money you can make? Because . . . I have not received my rebate yet, so I was wondering if there was a limit if the annual salary that we get [exceeds a certain limit].

— M.F., Providence

A: Yes. The limit depends on the income and other information you listed on your 2007 return, said Robert J. Sclama, who teaches taxation at Bryant University’s program for financial planners.

For example:

•Married: If you’re married and filed a joint return, your rebate amount may be reduced — possibly to zero — if your adjusted gross income exceeds $150,000. (Adjusted gross income is a figure found on the front of your return, toward the bottom.)

•Single: If you’re single, your rebate amount may be reduced — possibly to zero — if your adjusted gross income exceeds $75,000.

•Formula: In general, your rebate will be reduced by 5 percent of the amount by which your adjusted gross income exceeds the limit listed above.

Suppose, for example, that you’re married, filed a joint return and your adjusted gross income was $157,000 for last year.

That’s $7,000 above the limit. Five percent of $7,000 is $350. So your rebate in this example will be reduced by $350. Thus, if you’d otherwise qualify for a $1,200 rebate, you’ll receive $850 instead.

(The formula is more complicated if you have one or more children.)

TODAY’S TIP: The rebate program is the result of legislation enacted in February to try to spur the nation’s slumping economy.

The Treasury estimates that, by the end of this year, it will have distributed about $107 billion in rebates to more than 130 million households.

That includes about $400 million to more than 500,000 people in Rhode Island; about $2.4 billion to more than 2.9 million people in Massachusetts; and about $1.3 billion to more than 1.5 million people in Connecticut.

But the program also comes at a cost, which could be as high as $862 billion, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The figure includes the following amounts that Congress set aside to run the rebate program: $202 million to the IRS, $31 million to the Social Security Administration, and $64 million to the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Management Service.

And because the IRS had to shift hundreds of employees out of its collection operation to answer a surge in phone calls because of the rebates, the IRS will probably miss out on up to $565 million in tax revenue that it could have collected this year.

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