If you already received the third stimulus check you qualified for, look for a letter in the mail from the IRS confirming your payment. Since March, 164 million payments have been sent out on a weekly basis by the IRS through direct deposit or by mail. If you think you got the wrong payment amount (check your amount here) or you still haven’t received your payment, keep the IRS letter when it arrives. What is taking the IRS so long to process my tax return? Because of the pandemic, the IRS ran at limited capacity last year, which put a strain on its ability to process tax returns and send out stimulus checks.
The IRS is now open again and processing mail, tax returns, payments, refunds and correspondence, the agency said, but the pandemic continues to cause delays in some of services. If you believe you received the wrong amount — such as if a dependent was skipped — or the total doesn’t match the estimated amount from our stimulus calculator, it could indicate that you may need to hunt down your missing money using this letter. The IRS advises you to hold on to the letter for your 2021 tax records.
What this really means is that it’s useful if you need to claim missing money in the future, as you can now on your 2020 taxes as a recovery rebate credit for the first two checks. To track the status of your tax refund, you need several things on hand: Your Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, your filing status — single, married or head of household — and your refund amount in whole dollars, which you can find on your tax return. Also, make sure it’s been at least 24 hours before you try tracking your refund.
The IRS has rules that set the payment eligibility guidelines for US citizens who live abroad and non-US citizens who work in the US — along with spouses of nonresident aliens. We have a guide that walks you through the various eligibility scenarios along with what to do if you qualify but didn’t get a check. (And here’s how your status might change in a third check for mixed-status families.) Below, we’ll explain everything you need to know about starting the Recovery Rebate Credit claim process.
If you think you’re missing money from the third check, here’s what you need to know about what could hold push up exercises your check, how to report a payment problem and when to request an IRS payment trace. Additionally, here’s what we know about a fourth stimulus check and when you could start getting your 2021 child tax credit, if you and your children qualify. Here are other tax credits that could bring you more money this year, and new savings on health insurance and more.
This story was recently updated. File for a Recovery Rebate Credit on your tax return to claim missing money. Here’s how If you think the IRS owes you a full or partial stimulus check for any reason (and there are plenty of scenarios below), you have one more chance this year to claim missing stimulus check money by filing a Recovery Rebate Credit as part of your 2020 taxes.
