Our refund is held up due to the unemployment tax break. Is that why we have not gotten our stimulus payment??

[Moggarcia]

I filed on the 14 of February I just think is funny how the only people waiting for more than 2 months for the tax refund are the ones who filed the taxes by TurboTax or any self prep online website because I know friends who also collects unemployment and new tax credit and got the tax refund y lest than 3 weeks by going we a tax expert.

[tammycarden]

My husband and I are in the same situation as several others that have commented.  We got our first and second immediately and never got anything for the third.  I filed our 2020 taxes and they were accepted by the IRS in mid February.  Our AGI was $156,000, which would have at least given us a portion of the payment.  We also have a 21 yr old full-time college student dependent.  I had $9,800 in unemployment from being furloughed for several weeks last year.  The verbiage that I keep reading states that married filing joint couples will have the unemployment deducted if their AGI is $150,000.  Does this mean that my $9,800 won't be deducted since our AGI was $156,000 including the unemployment or does this mean if the deduction will be taken out since our "new" AGI would be below $150,000?  

Also, if the unemployment deduction is taken out and puts our AGI under $150,000, will be get the full stimulus payment after our return and refund has been processed "supposedly" sometime in May?  Since I filed fairly early in mid-February I assumed that our 2020 return would be used for the calculations.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

[clawmark]

I am really glad to hear from someone with a similar situation!!  Our 2020 AGI was $107K for a married filing jointly with 1 child.  SO, we were eligible for stimulus in 2019 and should be for 2020 regardless of the unemployment deduction.  So why no stimulus payment?  And why is there no one to ask??

[AmyC]

The IRS will deduct your unemployment to get your AGI. This will affect you. You should qualify for the full stimulus. If it is not received, it may be claimed on next year's tax return.

The IRS will start adjusting returns with unemployment after tax season ends. They will start with returns containing only one taxpayer and then move to married couples where both had unemployment. See IRS to recalculate taxes on unemployment benefits.

[DianeW777]

It's the nature of the current situation. This year has brought challenges and unprecedented changes to the normal due to the pandemic. The IRS is required to reconcile the tax returns and stimulus payments as well as working on the third stimulus payments due to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).  With the tax season and the changes taking place all at once, a delay should be expected for full payments. They want to be diligent and are required to follow any protocols they have been issued.  They will make any adjustments and additional payments as they complete the process.