Our federal refund decreased significantly after entering 3rd stimulus check. Is this suppose to happen? They asked if we received $4,200, but we only received $2,800.

[alirainey0903]

My wife and I are filing together, and received all three of our stimulus checks together.

[xmasbaby0]

What you may not realize is that as soon as you began to prepare your tax return, the software was giving you the $4200  and it was shown on that "refund monitor" -----but when you entered that you received  stimulus money  already, the software had to reconcile the payment you received,   You cannot get it twice---so it looked to you like you "lost" money.      You did not lose it---you just cannot receive it twice.

Do you have a dependent?   Did you also receive $1400 for a dependent?   3 x $1400 = $4200.    If you only received $2800  last year  then that is what you should enter and then you can get the $1400 for the dependent on line 30.

If you are not sure how much you received for the 3rd EIP----which is the only one you are being asked about for 2021---check your IRS accounts---for each of you.

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

[alirainey0903]

We do have a dependent. However, he was born in August 2021 and we received the 3rd stimulus of $2,800 in March 2021. In other words, we only received the $2,800 because the IRS does not have a dependent on file. Not sure if that means we receive remaining $1,400 for a dependent?   

[LoganathanB]

TurboTax interactively keeps calculating your refund as your enter the information. 

The information about your stimulus is the last question and until it calculates your refund assuming that you have not received it.

When you entered the amount of stimulus received the refund decreases y that amount.

If you had a dependent, the dependent may also be eligible to get the stimulus. IRS has the information in their database about the recipient and they will check and give you the correct refund.

[xmasbaby0]

@alirainey0903 Yes you should get the $1400 for the baby and you should also get the $3600 child tax credit.   The CTC will show up on line 28; the recovery rebate ("stimulus" ) will show up on line 30.   These calculate down to your refund or reduce your tax due.