here is how it works and hopefully this clears up the confusion
first you have to understand that the stimulus were 'advanced payments' against the 2020 tax return. What really matters is the ACTUAL results (dependents, income, etc). on your 2020 tax return.
The IRS used 2019 (and if that wasn't available they used 2018) to provide an ESTIMATE of what you were due because they obviously didn't have 2020 DURING the year.
The 'recovery credit' is the settle up between the ACTUAL and ESTIMATE calculated above. You are eligible for the HIGHER of the two. If the ACTUAL is higher than the ESTIMATE, that difference becomes the Line 30 Recovery Credit. If the ESTIMATE is higher than the ACTUAL, you get nothing more, but you don't have to return anything either; in other words Line 30 can NEVER be negative.
Here is an example of what can occur: I have a child dependent who is 16 in 2019. it is just the two of us. I received $1700 for the 1st stimulus and then $1200 on the 2nd stimulus. In 2020 my child graduated high school, got a job and I didn't claim him on our 2020 tax return. But he filled out his tax return and indicated no one else could claim him.
On my 2020 tax return, I was ACTUALLY eligible for $1200 for the 1st stimulus and $600 for the 2nd stimulus - my child was not on my tax return. Since the ACTUAL ($1800) was higher than the ESTIMATE ($2900), I don't have to return anything and Line 30 is zero.
For my child's tax return, he is ACTUALLY eligible for $1200 and $600 since on his 2020 tax return he is independent of my tax return. But his ESTIMATE is ZERO because he did not receive the 1st two stimulus payments (I did since he was my dependent but the point is he didn't!). So he will get $1800 on line 30 since the ESTIMATE is greater than the ACTUAL.
so through the hocus pocus, did I receive stimulus money for my child and then he filed independently and he got money for himself as well? seems like two sets of stimulus payments for the same person? YES! and that is perfectly legal - it is the way it was designed.
does that make sense?
