Rebate Recovery Credit for 2008
Tuesday December 23, 2008
The recovery rebate credit is a special federal tax credit for 2008 only. The credit is available for individuals who did not apply for the economic stimulate rebate in 2007. The recovery rebate credit is also available for people who's rebate is higher when calculated using their 2008 financial information.
The recovery rebate will show up as an additional tax credit on your 2008 tax return. You might qualify for the recovery rebate if:
- You didn't file a return in 2007 to claim the economic stimulus rebate;
- Changes in your income now qualifies you for a higher rebate amount; or
- You are claiming dependents under age 17 that would qualify you for a higher rebate amount.
Comments
I have a question, with 2008 Recovery Rebate Credit. Last year I misspelled one of my daughter’s social number and we only got my wife’s, mine and my other daughters stimulus payment. This year when I got the 1040 booklet and started to calculate the credit. I realized I cannot go beyond Step 5 when asked was I or my wife in the armed forces in 2008, if no, stop here and I can not take this credit. What I can do, please advice.
You can skip question 4 (about serving in the armed forces) if you answer “yes” to question 2 (about having a valid SSN for yourself and your spouse).
This refers to the worksheet found on pages 62-63 of the Instructions for Form 1040 (pdf).
ok i have my 1040A form in front of me and i see a Recovery rebate credit of 428 on line 42 but further on down on lines 44 and 45 it shows that my refund is 710 the Recovery rebate credit of 428 is not added to that amount so my question is will i get the 428 back also ?
I never got a recovery rebate credit in 2008. I’m a part-time professional, and full-time student. Did my 07 income have to do with not receiving it? Is there a minimum amount to be earned? I just thought of it as I’m filling out my 08 taxes.
we have already filed our taxes. plus we had our granddaughter on our tax refund. my question is will we still be able to get a stimuilus check, we did receive one last year.
Nate, The recovery rebate should already be included in your refund amount. Your total payments on line 43 (which includes the rebate) should be $710 higher than your tax liability on line 28. If that’s not the case, I would wait for the IRS to first issue you a refund so you can see exactly how much the IRS sent you, and then call to ask about the additional rebate.
Erin, there was a minimum amount of ‘qualifying income’ to receive the economic stimulus payment. It was $3,000 in wages, self-employment, or certain other types of retirement or disability income. If you earned less than this amount, you would not have received your stimulus check. So you should see if you qualify for the recovery rebate on this year’s return. If your income is higher than $3,000, you should qualify.
J.C., whether you qualify for the recovery rebate depends on if your rebate is higher using this year’s income information vs. last year when you filed. If your rebate is higher, you should get the additional amount with your tax refund.
I had already filed my taxes. I didn’t filed last year taxes since there was no Income, and hence did not got the Stimulus Pay last year. I don’t see that my tax preparer had explicitly mentioned anything in my 1040 form that I am eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit. My question is whether i will get the RRC or not? Is there any way to claim it seperately?
Sundareshwar, I would wait for your refund from the IRS and see if the refund amount is higher than indicated on your tax return. If so, then the IRS has calculated a recovery rebate credit for you and added it into your refund. If that’s not the case, then I would file an amendment to claim the credit. I would ask your tax preparer to do this for you, free of charge, since he or she should have prepared the return properly in the first place. But if that’s not going to be an option, fill out the amendment form 1040x yourself. It will be pretty simple. Columns A and C will be the same as from your tax return except for Line 15 where you will add in the recovery rebate, and then follow the rest of the lines which are arithmetical calculations. Attach the recovery rebate worksheet from the instruction booklet (see comment #2), or attach a printout from the recovery rebate calculator on the IRS web site.
I’m a little confused and I’m hoping you can help me. I used Turbo Tax to file my taxes and when I completed the rebate recovery worksheet, I ended up with $600 on line 29. However, I’m not sure where this was added to my refund. (From what I understand this is not a separate check, but included in the regular refund). I already recieved my refund of $876 which was on line 44 and 45a.
Emily, the recovery rebate is added in the payments section of Form 1040. Look at the print out of your tax return. On Form 1040, this shows up on line 70. On Form 1040A (which sounds like is the one you submitted to the IRS through TurboTax), this shows up on line 42. Your total payments (shown on line 43) should be the total of your withholding (line 39), the recovery credit, and any other refundable credits that show up in this section.
I have the same issue as C Yan. My gross income of 2007 was less than 150k. however it is 158k of 2008. I will simply lose $300 if going through the worksheet you recommanded.what I figured out is the 158k makes the loss. Anything wrong I did here? Please advise, thanks
My recovery rebate credit is not showing on my federal tax review form – my understanding is that it should show under the section Taxes – Money they give you back. It’s not there – Know why?
We just received a bill from the IRS for exactly the amount on line 70 our recovery rebate. Why???
Gary, if you received your rebate in 2008, then there’s probably no additional rebate left to claim on your 2008 return. When I calculate the rebate assuming the same situation as C Yan (married, two children), and use your income of 158k, I get a rebate of 1,400. Calculating the rebate using your 2007 information (since you made under $150k), your rebate would have been $1,800. So if you didn’t get your rebate last year, you can take a $1,400 credit on this year’s return. If you receive some of the rebate last year, you get the remainder (up to $1,400 total) this year. If the rebate you received was higher than the amount calculated for 2008, then you don’t have to pay back the difference.
Joan, it could be that your software did not calculate the recovery credit (it would show up on line 70 of Form 1040). Or it could be that you already received the full amount of the credit last year, and so there would be no remaining amount to claim on this year’s return.
Michelle, it’s unclear just from those facts exactly what’s going on. Perhaps you already received the recovery rebate last year? Or perhaps you weren’t eligible for the credit this year based on your income. Or perhaps there’s another problem on the return that happens to be in the same dollar amount of your rebate. If the IRS letter doesn’t explain where the problem lies, you may want to call them to ask for an explanation.
I got tax refund last 2008 and they includes my tax refund to my earning this year they specify this as retro earning otherwise it includes to my YTD gross pay!Is it right procedure or not?I am contract workers and i do not know
what is going on!Im just worried if my gross pay will get in to 37,885 or more than which is required to pay more taxes!I am hoping to your answer to clear my mind!thank you so much!