Econimic Impact payments

[Sparrow72]

I was wondering if someone could shed some light on these payments for me.  My husband and I received all 3 EIP payments, and I entered the amount we received on our Federal taxes.  After the taxes were excepted, and after waiting a month after filing, we get a notice that they are withholding 1400.00 from our taxes, stating that we were paid too much in EIP payments.  Since this is based off of our past taxes, we are still very confused, and no one will help us.  We have tried for months to call the number on the letter they sent us, to dispute, and you never get a hold of anyone.  I asked a tax expert in the city we live in, and they said the same thing, no one can get a hold of the IRS to discuss.  We do not understand why we have to pay this amount back off of our taxes if they checked all of that before sending us the amounts.  The letter we received states if we dispute it, more than likely they will let us keep it, but that never happened.  We received less back in taxes this year than we ever had, and we made less money.  Does anyone have any suggestions or a way to tell if we received too much.  I have not heard of anyone else having this issue and we don't know what to do at this point.  We are very upset by this as the payments were supposed to help people and you were not supposed to have to pay this back off of your taxes.  I was just wondering if anyone had a suggestion or what we could do?  

Thank you!

[xmasbaby0]

If you already received all of the EIP payments then you answered incorrectly on your tax return if you tried to get those payments again as a recovery rebate credit.   If you received those payments you should have entered the amounts from letter 6475 that was sent to EACH spouse so that you would not have had an amount on line 30.   You cannot get the recovery rebate credit if you already received the EIP payment.  If you  had an amount on line 30 you were trying to get the $1400 per person twice.   You do not get it twice.

LOTS of people have made mistakes this year with the recovery rebate credit by "forgetting" that they received the $1400 per person stimulus checks last year.  They answered no to the questions for the  recovery recovery rebate credit and put the $1400 per person on line 30 of their returns.  But you cannot get it twice, so the IRS removes it when it is there by mistake.  The IRS sent letter 6475 showing that you received the 3rd stimulus check. 

It is very important that if you filed a joint return—-the IRS sent letter 6475 to EACH spouse.  You had to enter the total amount received.   Many people misunderstood and entered only the amount from one of the letters.

Try checking your online account with the IRS (and if you filed a joint return—check for BOTH of you)

https://www.irs.gov/payments/your-online-account

Does the IRS show that you received a $1400 per person stimulus or EIP check in 2021?   Did you receive it?   When you were asked on your tax return did you say no?   Was there $1400 per person on line 30 of your tax return?

If the IRS says you got $1400  per person last year but you did not receive it you can have it traced.

LOST THIRD STIMULUS CHECK

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/questions-and-answers-about-the-third-round-economic-impact-payment-top...

If you need to trace a payment that the IRS says has been issued to you, mail or fax a completed IRS Form 3911, Taxpayer Statement Regarding Refund

[VolvoGirl]

Bottom line is....how much did you have on 1040 line 30?  Was it 1400?  If you already got the 3rd Stimulus payment of 2800 (1400x2) then line 30 should have been blank or 0.   You must have entered the amount from only one of the IRS 6475 letters you got.  The sent a letter to each spouse for half.  You are not paying it back.  But you tried to claim it again.  

[Sparrow72]

Thank you for clarifying everything, and I will go and check line 30 on our 1040.  No one would explain anything to us, so we had no idea what we were even looking for.  I appreciate you helping us out. 

[Sparrow72]

Thank you and will check line 30.  We just needed somewhere to start to understand this all.  Thanks again!!