Hello! our tax return was about 1,300 dollars less than expected, and our 3rd stimulus check was half as expected for our income and dependents

[shastavhowe]

our gross income for 2020 was way way way way less than the stimulus cap and we have two kiddos. i can't find any answers anywhere.

[JotikaT2]

Are you referring to your 2020 Income Tax return?  

If so, you will be able to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on your income tax return if you received less than you were entitled to when the stimulus payments were issued.

Recovery Rebate Credit eligibility

When you prepare your 2020 income tax return, be sure to do the following to ensure the credit is calculated correctly on your income tax return.

In the Federal section, select the Federal Review interview section at the top of the screen.

This will take you to the input section for the Recovery Rebate credit.

Be sure to indicate the actual amount of each stimulus payment you received on the page that asks if you received a stimulus payment.  There will be two boxes and both need to be completed.  

FYI:  The 3rd stimulus check was just passed into legislation and will start being issued so those payments do not affect your 2020 income tax returns.

How will the 3rd stimulus affect me

[shastavhowe]

We already filed our 2020 taxes and received our return, and it was less than expected with no reason given. We also received our 3rd stimulus check, however it was also half of what we should have received for our gross 2020 income and number of dependents. I am wondering if there is somewhere I can learn why these things happened.

[JotikaT2]

Thanks for the clarification.

At this point, I suggest going to the following link from the IRS.  Depending upon the amount of each payment and your specific situation, the answer may differ.  I recommend going to the question and answer sections for the first and second economic impact payments to ensure you were entitled to either of those, as well as the 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit section.

These are located at the bottom of the link.

IRS guidance on payments

You can also try contacting the IRS directly using the information in the link below.  

IRS Telephone assistance

[shastavhowe]

We were entitled to both the previous stimulus payments and received the correct, full amount for each one. Our problem is that we did not receive the full amount for the third stimulus payment, and we were wondering if this was something on turbo tax's end because the second stimulus payment was delayed because of turbo tax errors. Unfortunately the IRS doesn't pick up the phone and the status checker has been offline for a while now.

[fanfare]

IRS is rushing to put out money less than 24 hours after the signing.

It would be a shame if they are miscalculating the amount you should get because they are in a hurry.