Nothing is as bad as knowing that the government has sent you a stimulus check, but you are yet to receive it. The IRS announced in the last week of January that it has completed sending out the last of the checks, formally the Economic Impact Payments. But the Internal Revenue Service has also disclosed that many eligible Americans are yet to receive their payments.
Citizens who are yet to get their stimulus check can take heart from the fact that there is time to claim your missing check.
Around 175M checks were issued by the federal administration for a total payment of $500B starting March 2021. The administration has reminded citizens that they should claim their missing payments through the Recovery Rebate Credit against their 2021 tax returns to be filed in the first quarter of 2022.
Citizens Can Claim Their Missing Stimulus Check Through The Recovery Rebate Credit
The rebate will come as a kind of markdown on your income tax returns for 2021. So you will either end up paying less or increase the amount of your income tax refund. Mark Steber, the CTIO at Jackson Hewitt said that it is a sort of golden prize.
The Economic Impact Payment under the American Rescue Plan Act came into effect in March last year. It was sent starting immediately and through December. The $1,400 stimulus check for qualifying individuals and families meant a bounty for many families with a family of four getting as much as $5,600.
Individuals with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 got the full check amount, while for a couple who file jointly, the stimulus check of $1,400 was for AGI below $150,000.
Most Americans have received their stimulus checks. But families whose dependents’ status changed with the birth in the family or the addition of a dependent will get an extra stimulus check-in 2022, though only after their file their 2021 income tax return.
