In March, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law and authorized the distribution of a third stimulus check. The IRS has distributed more than 156 million of these payments and is continuing to steadily deposit money into people’s bank accounts or mail out checks.
If you haven’t yet received your third check, you can use the IRS’s Get My Payment tool to determine when your money will arrive.
If you didn’t receive either the first or second check, though, the IRS will no longer send the payment to you automatically. You are going to have to claim it by filing your 2020 taxes if you didn’t receive your money. Here’s what you should know about this process.
Claiming your stimulus check on a tax return
If you didn’t receive the full amount of stimulus payments that were authorized in 2020, you’ll need to use Line 30 of the 1040 (or 1040-SR) form in order to request your money.
When you request the outstanding stimulus payments, you’ll need to know how much you are entitled to receive. The IRS instructions accompanying the 1040 form include a worksheet that can help you to figure that out. If you are filing your taxes using tax-filing software, the software should be able to guide you through this process.
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