Recovery Rebate Credit Change in Filing Status

[EmsBTW2016]

Hi! I have a client - two people who got married in 2020.

At the time of the first two economic impact payments, the taxpayer did not qualify for the stimulus checks due to income being over the threshold for a single taxpayer.

When married filing jointly, the taxpayer and spouse are now under the 150k income threshold (taxpayer made significantly more than spouse in 2020).

The spouse claims they have not received the second economic impact payment (spouse had lower income and was eligible to receive both EIPs).

I saw a post on here saying it is best to be conservative and NOT claim the recovery rebate credit in case the IRS says the check is in the mail? And that the IRS will sort it out? 

I am leaning towards filing the return without claiming the credit - not even for the amount related to the spouses missing second payment.

thoughts?

[BobKamman]

Half my clients didn't receive the second EIP.  Back when it was easy to check online, I confirmed that none was issued.  If we couldn't trust IRS the first time around, why trust them the second?  Claim it and they will let you know if you are wrong.  

[EmsBTW2016]

Would you also put zero in for the amounts received by taxpayer (since they didn’t receive anything because they were not eligible based on 2019) to receive the credit? I guess you have to make entries in all the boxes so I would have to enter that the taxpayer did not receive the payments. 

I read that after this third stimulus check, the IRS will send payments for any additional amounts owed based on the 2020 tax return to eligible taxpayers who filed before July 15 - so I’m wondering if we should just wait? Ugh - sorry I am just confused.

[BobKamman · Accepted solution]

IRS will "top off" EIP#3 if the 2020 return shows the taxpayer eligible for more than what was paid before it was processed.  That's if the return is processed by August 15 (90 days after the new due date of May 17)  They will not recompute EIP#1 or EIP#2.  You do those on the 2020 return, using the RRC worksheet, where you enter zero if nothing was received.