After you file

This TurboTax Community website is an open forum for TurboTax users to ask and answer questions. 

The 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit is actually a tax year 2020 tax credit. The government sent payments beginning in April of 2020 and a second round beginning in late December of 2020 and into 2021. The credit is available to those who did not receive the Economic Impact Payments or who received less than the full amount that they were eligible for.

• The payments that were sent out were called Economic Impact Payments (also called stimulus payments) and went out as an advance payment of the 2020 tax credit.
• The government sent out an amount thought to be what you would be eligible for based mostly on your prior year tax return or your eligibility for certain benefits such as Social Security.
• The goal was to get money into the hands of taxpayers as fast as possible without having to wait for them to file their 2020 tax returns.

If you did not receive the credit or not enough of the credit through the stimulus payments, the only way to claim the proper amount is on your 2020 tax return. You must file a 2020 tax return to claim any credit that you have not already received, even if you otherwise are not required to file a 2020 tax return. 

If you have already received Economic Impact Payments for the full amounts that you're eligible for based on your 2020 tax return, you don't qualify for any additional credit.

In order to qualify for any of the credit on your 2020 tax return, you:

• Must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien in 2020
• Cannot have been a dependent of another taxpayer in 2020
• Must have a Social Security number that is valid for employment before the 2020 tax return due date
• Did not receive the full amount of the credit through an Economic Impact Payment

See this TurboTax tips article for more information.

See here if you need to purchase a TurboTax product to prepare a 2020 tax return or amend a previously filed 2020 tax return. The deadline is April 15, 2024.