Welcome into 2021 I’m Olivier Wagner, EA, CPA. I have been operating 1040 awards since 2012 and today I will discuss the seven stimulus check which was passed into law during the last days of 2020.
These checks amount to only $600 dollars per person unlike the $1,200 the first time around in spring 2020. You can receive an additional six hundred dollars per dependent under the age of 17.
There is a phase-out that applies if your income is more than $75 000. This means that if your income is more than $75,000, the amount of your stimulus check will be for a lower amount, reaching zero at $87,000. For those filing as married-filing-jointly, the phase-out starts to apply after $150 000 of income, reaching zero at $174,000.
These are paid in the form of direct deposits for those who claimed a refund on their 2019 return and indicated their direct deposit information on the 2019 tax return. Otherwise, it will be sent in the form of a paper check to the address on your 2019 tax return.
As mentioned, you would be entitled to get an additional six hundred dollars per dependent under the age of 17. This means that if you have dependents over the age of 17, being a son or daughter in the university or a parent to whom you’re paying the living expenses you would not qualify for the additional 600 dollars for anybody over the age of 17. To qualify for the extra $600 per dependent, they need to be 16 years or younger on December 31st, 2019.
Can they garnish that check for child support or other liabilities? Unlike the first round in which that was indeed the case, the second round is not subject to garnishment meaning that states cannot ask the IRS to garnish the check to pay for child support.
The flip side of it is if you are owed the child support you will not receive it as a withdrawal from the other parent’s check.
What if I don’t receive that check? Or what if I have not received the first check that relates to the stimulus from spring 2020?
Tax season is around the corner your 2020 tax return will be filed starting February 2021 so any stimulus check that you would not have received can be claimed as a refundable credit so you will receive it as a refund on your 2020 tax return.
As you can see line 30 is where you will be able to claim the ”recovery rebate credit” which is commonly known as the stimulus checks. If you have not received it you can receive request it as a refundable credit on line 30 and then it will flow through to become an actual refund on line 34, where you can request a direct deposit if you so desire.
That was it for today; you can contact me by email at owagner@1040abroad.com or otherwise use the contact form on 1040abroad.com I look forward to seeing you on a future episode. Thank you
