stimulus bill question

It depends when they process your return. My 2019 return was filed on time in July 2020 but for some reason they didn't get around to processing it until a month ago.

Probably not. Even if they accepted your return and processed your payment or refund, the IRS seems to take a long time to officially record returns. If a stimulus bill goes through this month, they will probably base your situation on your 2019 filing. You may have to claim a credit on your 2021 return to get your payment.

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If you *e-filed* your joint 2020 Federal return (a detail you neglected to specify), as strongly advised by the IRS, my guess (contrary to the guesses of the other participants in the thread) would be the IRS will likely base your stimulus payment on the AGI from that return (an opinion, BTW, which happens to be in agreement with every single article concerning the matter I've come across on the Internet). Good luck.

My 2018 income was high enough that I would have got only a part of the spring 2020 $1200 payment, but my 2019 income was below the threshold. I e-filed my 2019 Federal return in the first week of April 2020, and on the last day of that month the full $1200 stimulus payment appeared in my bank account. So they must have used my recent e-file for 2019, rather than my e-file for 2018.

Assuming they do things the same way this year, your prediction is looking pretty good.

Curt:

Yeah, I e-filed on 2/22. So far, status is "received."

I guess at worst I would get a credit on my 2021 return

Mel

An easy way to check might be to go online to the IRS website on the day the stimulus is law and click View Tax Account to see what's the latest info they have recorded.

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The current 2020 software (TurboTax for what it's worth), reconciles the last $600 payment. I did not receive it as my 2019 income was too high. I am hopeful that if the current bill goes into law soon enough, it would have the same effect, i.e. since my last return (for 2019) was too high, it will reconcile in 2020, and not wait for the 2021 return. All the details I read talk about the phaseout numbers but not the exact years' income they will look at and reconcile with.

Hello. Is that your refund status? The IRS claims most refunds are processed within 21 days (if you e-filed a return without errors). But apparently all might not be lost even if your return were processed too late for the third EIP:

If your 2020 return is already filed and processed, then your stimulus check will be based on your 2020 return. If your 2020 return is filed and/or processed after the IRS sends you a stimulus check, but before July 15, 2021 (or September 1 if the April 15 filing deadline is pushed back), the IRS will send you a second payment for the difference between what your payment should have been if based on your 2020 return and any payment actually sent based on your 2019 return. Although this is subject to change, that's the plan at this point.

We can now set speculation aside (hopefully), as the IRS Get My Payment tool is currently online and will provide the status of your 2021 EIP.

I checked the tool myself earlier today; my 2020 Federal return filed February 16 was taken into account. Yet although GMP informs me a payment is scheduled to the direct deposit account I listed for the first time on my 2020 return, the amount of that payment is not specified. There's no ambiguity in my case, but for some filers (and maybe for the OP) with significant changes in AGI between 2019 and 2020, there may remain uncertaintly about which AGI was taken into account until the payment is actually received.