Stimulus checks

[FTPhil]

What should we do if a married couple each receives a $2400 stimulus payment?

[sjrcpa]

Apparently nothing. The law says you don't have to repay if you got too much.

They could donate it to help the hungry, homeless, etc.

[BobKamman]

Were they married to each other, or someone else, in 2018 and 2019?

[IRonMaN]

I still say this would have been handled more efficiently if they would have just drove down the highway, throwing cash out of the back of a pickup truck.

[TaxGuyBill]

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@sjrcpa wrote:

Apparently nothing. The law says you don't have to repay if you got too much.

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Not necessarily.  There is no repayment if you received a proper Advance credit, but I don't think that means the IRS can't take back an improper Advance credit.

[FTPhil]

They got married in 2019

[BobKamman]

@IRonMaN "I still say this would have been handled more efficiently if they would have just drove down the highway, throwing cash out of the back of a pickup truck."

Get with it, Boomer.  Climate change is going to kill us slowly even if the virus doesn't kill us quickly.  They have drones these days that run on electricity, renewable energy in many places.  Drop the money from the sky.  

As for the question under consideration:  Bob and Carol celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2018, then Bob died.  Ted and Alice, likewise, then Alice died.  All of them were collecting Social Security and filing joint returns.  Carol and Ted met and married at the Senior Center in 2019.   I would be surprised if we did NOT hear about such a case. 

Maybe it wasn't at the Senior Center.  I had clients for many years, a married couple who met at the cemetery where they saw each other every Sunday visiting their late spouses' graves.  

[sjrcpa]

This would make sense, and be fair, which is why I am skeptical.

You think they'll claw back the amounts issued to dead people, too?

[TaxGuyBill]

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@sjrcpa wrote:

This would make sense, and be fair, which is why I am skeptical.

You think they'll claw back the amounts issued to dead people, too?

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My GUESS is that they won't take back anything, whether it is an overpayment or a payment for a dead person.  But in my opinion, the non-payback clause in law doesn't preclude them from taking back improper payments if they wanted to do so.

[IRonMaN]

If they would have just used the drones, those dead folks wouldn't have been able to jump high enough to grab the cash and we wouldn't have this issue.

[sjrcpa]

I've had two couples who were high school sweethearts reconnect at a 50 or more year high school reunion and then get married.