The stimulus check season is rolling along, and you're still looking forward to getting your hands on the money.

By your calculations, there's $1,200 coming for you and your spouse, plus $300 apiece for your three dependent children, ages 16, 18 and 22. Total it and there's $2,100 from Uncle Sam to put to work on getting the economy humming again. In other words, you're itching to cash that rebate check and do the patriotic thing — spend it.

Just one problem. You won't receive anything for your two oldest children; only the 16-year-old counts for rebate purposes.

What's more, the two oldest won't receive checks of their own, either — even though they had earned income in 2007 and paid a chunk of taxes from their summer jobs.

According to the way Congress wrote the law, dependent children in this case could be no older than 16 as of Dec. 31, 2007, in order for parents to qualify for the $300 stimulus payment.

Likewise, any 17-year-old and up who had earned income for 2007 but was claimed as a dependent under their parent's tax return is also ineligible.

These quirks in the economic stimulus package that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in February have become a sore spot for many parents who are only now realizing they'll be receiving a little less than expected.

What's the explanation?

My first thought: Perhaps no one in Congress who writes tax legislation had children over the age of 16. Seems perfectly logical to me, given the way Washington works.

Julie Welch, an accountant with Meara Welch Browne PC, also wasn't sure.

"Perhaps Congress was thinking that if someone else is claiming the person as a dependent, the government should not be providing a special tax rebate" to that older child, said Welch, co-author of 101 Tax Saving Ideas.

Others have speculated that Congress cut off stimulus funds at age 16 because they wanted to rein in the cost of the tax package and felt there would be less political fallout come November by slicing the rebate pie this way.

Never mind, according to a commentary on the www.Watchblog.com Web site, that "by all legal definitions, a 17-year-old high school student living at home as a dependent of their parents is a child dependent for tax purposes, for custodial legal purposes, for local school parental liability purposes and on and on."

The IRS, which administers the law, didn't have an official comment, and congressional tax writers couldn't be reached for comment. However, it should be noted that the child eligibility limit in the stimulus package is the same standard as the child tax credit, which allows parents to claim a credit of up to $1,000 for each qualifying child under age 17.

Is it fair? That depends on your perspective.

Consider this comment posted on a Yahoo.com tax blog: "From my standpoint, (students) and your parents are getting significant educational benefits from the government in the form of grants, tax credits or deductions, and low-interest-rate loans paid for out of my taxes. These are worth far more than the piddling $300 that you're losing under the rules of the plan."

Keep in mind, however, that even if your older children are ineligible for the rebate, they may still benefit under the plan. "If the individual is no longer a dependent in 2008, he or she may get credit on their 2008 return" filed in 2009, depending on their tax situation, said Jackie Perlman of H&R Block Inc. in Kansas City, Mo.

This isn't the first time Congress has tinkered with tax laws pertaining to children. One example is the so-called kiddie tax, which sets the threshold for how much children can make in investment income from interest and dividends without having to pay any taxes. A few years ago, the law applied to children younger than 14, then was changed in 2006 to reach children 17 and younger. Last year the age was bumped up again by one year, but full-time college students under age 24 were also snared.

Meanwhile, for those parents who received $300 or more in stimulus money for their eligible children, several financial planners suggest earmarking that money for education or other long-term goals. For example, use the $300 for a deposit into a 529 college savings plan. Or, if you have a teen working this summer, the funds could be used to seed a Roth IRA for them.

At least with these strategies, the rebate money could be turned into something truly meaningful.

STIMULATING INFORMATION: The Internal Revenue Service has a good list of questions and answers about the rebate checks on its Web site, www.irs.gov. Click on Rebate Payment Questions.