Never got a COVID-19 stimulus check? There may be another opportunity to claim when filing your taxes
It may be too late to get your stimulus check this year —
but Americans will have another opportunity to receive these pandemic-related
funds when they file their taxes in 2021.
Under the CARES Act, the federal government distributed so-called “economic impact payments” to millions of people across the country. Individuals with adjusted gross incomes below $75,000 received $1,200 payments, while married couples who file their taxes jointly and earn less than $150,000 got $2,400. The government also paid out $500 per qualifying kid.
By mid-April, some 130 million people across the country had already received their checks. But now, months later, millions of Americans have still not received the money they’re owed — as many as 12 million people, according to ProPublica.
There are a range of reasons why some households have never received their stimulus money. Some people may have neglected to include direct-deposit information for their bank on their 2019 tax returns, and their paper check got lost in the mail.
In other cases, people who would have qualified based on
their 2020 income either didn’t get a check at all or received less money than
they should have because they earned too much money in 2019.
The payouts were based on Americans’ 2019 taxes. For people
whose incomes exceeded those thresholds to receive the full stimulus payment,
the checks they received were either smaller in value. And individuals who
earned $99,000 and married couples who earned $198,000 — per their 2019 taxes —
received no checks at all.
Parents may also be able to receive additional stimulus
payments if they welcomed a new child into their family after they had already
received their economic impact payment.
Whatever the reason, the IRS will be providing a process for households to recoup those funds through the tax return they file in 2021.
Eligible individuals will be to claim a “Recovery Rebate Credit” on their 2020 Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR. “The Recovery Rebate Credit is figured like the 2020 Economic Impact Payment, except that the credit eligibility and the credit amount are based on the tax year 2020 information shown on the 2020 tax returns filed in 2021,” the Internal Revenue Service states on its website.
The instructions for the Form 1040 and Form 1040-SR will include a worksheet that people can used to calculate what amount they are owed. A draft copy of the worksheet posted to the IRS website indicates that taxpayers will need to complete 13 questions to determine what, if any, credit they are owed. The total possible amounts for this credit are the same as with the original stimulus checks: $1,200 for individuals or $2,400 for married couples filing jointly, plus $500 per qualifying child.
To fill out this worksheet, individuals will need a copy of their Notice 1444. The IRS mailed this notice — which describes the amount of people’s stimulus payments, how it was made and how to report any payments that weren’t received — to people’s last known address after payments went out. If a taxpayer cannot find their Notice 1444, they can also get this information by visiting the IRS website, the agency says.
After a taxpayer has completed the worksheet to determine the amount of their recovery rebate credit, they will then enter that number on line 30 of their Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR. Taxpayers should be aware that they won’t receive this credit as a separate payment. Rather, the credit will be added to the amount of their tax refund or deducted from the amount of tax they owe the federal government.
