If you’re still waiting on your $600 stimulus check, it’s time to start thinking about plan B.
The Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday that it has completed all “first and second Economic Impact Payments it is legally permitted to issue” and the “Get My Payment” link will no longer be updated for either.
People who didn’t receive one or got less than the full amounts aren’t necessarily out of luck, though. They could qualify for the Recovery Rebate Credit, which would result in either a bigger refund or smaller tax bill.
To find out if you qualify, though, you’ll have to do some legwork.
Step one in determining eligibility is filing your 2020 taxes. Economic Impact Payments are based on your taxable income—specifically your 2018 and 2019 returns. To quality for a Recovery Rebate Credit, your 2020 income will have to be below the threshold for payment. Specifically, your adjusted gross income (AGI) could not exceed:
- $150,000 if married and filing a joint return or if filing as a qualifying widow or widower;
- $112,500 if filing as head of household; or
- $75,000 for eligible individuals using any other filing status
Have questions about filing taxes this year? Coins2Day has you covered.
If your income previously did not fit this criteria, but did in 2020 because of job loss or some other factor that reduced your AGI, you could still be eligible to get either stimulus check—or the portion you didn’t receive previously.
Both stimulus checks were, at the core, an advance payment on a 2020 tax credit. If you qualified and received your check, but your 2020 income exceeds the thresholds, don’t worry, you won’t be required to pay the money back. (That could, however, impact what you receive should a third round of payments be issued, so factor that in before you file this year’s taxes.)
The IRS says it delivered over 147 million second-round stimulus checks to Americans, totaling over $142 billion.
A new round is making its way through Congress now, which could put another $1,400 into people’s pockets before the first day of spring.