How do I forgo asking for the recovery rebate credit? My spouse is not eligible for it.

[fegonzalezg-outl]

Turbotax is asking how much stimulus we got. We only got 1/2 of the total because my spouse does not qualify for it (mixed status household). But upon entering the accurate amount that we got, Turbotax immediately says we should apply for the 1/2 that we didn't get. I don't want to ask for something I know we don't qualify for.

[LenaH]

Mixed-status families now fully qualify to receive stimulus payments as long as one spouse has a valid social security number. When the CARES Act was first passed in March 2020, the spouse without a social security number was not eligible to receive a stimulus payment. However, when Congress passed the coronavirus relief package in late December, the government allowed mixed-status families to both receive stimulus payments.   This change in law is retroactive, meaning that mixed-status families are now qualified for the first round of payments as well. The Recovery Rebate credit you received is reflecting the stimulus payments that are due to your spouse.  

[fegonzalezg-outl]

Hi LenaH,

Thank you for your reply 😀

I kept researching this topic, and I'm fairly certain my Spouse does not qualify. We will be requesting her ITIN this year with the tax return that we're currently working on. I filed MFS last year. This year we'll file MFJ. We'll have to file by mail unfortunately 🙄. 

From what I understand, the second stimulus packaged allowed mixed-status household to get the stimulus checks BUT only for the valid SSN holders (unless one of the them is an active member of the US Armed Forces).  

Here the IRS says non-SSN holders don't qualify: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/second-eip-faqs#Eligibility

Here the IRS says mixed-status household DO qualify, but only the SSN holder gets the check: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/second-eip-faqs#marriedfilingjoint

From this, I believe we already received the full amount as per the rules (thanks to me filing separately last year). And requesting for more would be wrong.

I haven't found a way so far to tell Turbotax to leave the Recovery Rebate on $0. It asks for how much we got in stimulus and then forcefully adds the Credits assuming my spouse is eligible.

Thank you so much!

[JamesG1]

You may enter values for the stimulus checks received to insure that do not receive a Rebate Recovery Credit.

In TurboTax, at the prompt to enter the values received from stimulus check 1 and stimulus check 2, enter values that reduce the Rebate Recovery Credit to zero.  If need be, at a later time, you could amend your tax return to report the actual amounts received and receive the Rebate Recovery Credit.

This presumes that the IRS will not be 'correcting' the stimulus check information as it processes 2020 tax returns.

You can access your stimulus check choices by following these steps: 

•  Down the left side of the screen, click on Federal.
• Across the top of the screen, click on Other Tax Situations.
• At the screen Let’s keep going to wrap up.  Click on Let’s keep going.
• At the screen Let’s make sure you got the right stimulus amount, click Continue.
• At the screen Did you get a stimulus payment? you can update your stimulus check entries.

TurboTax will compare your two payment amounts to the computation within TurboTax.  The computations within TurboTax are based upon the information that has been entered into the tax software.  If you are due an additional amount, it will be issued as a Rebate Recovery Credit (RRC) on line 30 of the 2020 1040 tax return.

See also this TurboTax Help.