If you’re the proud new parent of a 2020 baby, here’s some good news to get you through those sleepless nights: Your 2020 bundle of joy qualifies you for a sweet bundle of stimulus cash — $1,100 to be exact.
Why Do New Parents Get an Extra $1,100?
The first stimulus check gave parents an extra $500 for each child age 16 and younger on top of the $1,200 for most adults. The second stimulus check provided families with $600 for each adult and dependent child 16 or younger. So between the two checks, parents generally got $1,100 per kid.
Both checks were an advance on a 2020 tax credit that were processed using 2018 or 2019 returns. But the IRS won’t know about any of the babies welcomed into the world in 2020 until you file a tax return.
When you file your 2020 taxes, you can receive the $1,100 as a Rebate Recovery Credit. That just means you’ll get the extra money as a tax refund. That’s on top of the $2,000 child tax credit parents who are single filers with incomes under $200,000 or joint filers with incomes under $400,000 qualify for.
What Are the Income Limits?
For both stimulus checks, the income limits to receive the full stimulus payments were:
- $75,000 for single filers
- $112,500 for heads of households
- $150,000 for married couples filing a joint return
Checks phased out at 5 cents on the dollar for every dollar of income above these thresholds. For a more detailed explanation of how the phaseout works for child credits, check out Question 7 of our child stimulus credit FAQ.
Do I Get $1,100 if I Adopted in 2020?
You should qualify for an $1,100 stimulus payment for your family’s new addition as long as the child you adopted was 16 or younger at the end of 2020. The same rules apply: File your tax return to get the money as a refund.
What if I’m Not Married to My Child’s Other Parent?
The parent who’s claiming the child as a dependent for tax purposes receives the money.
I Didn’t Get the Money for My 2019 Baby. What Gives?
A lot of parents were frustrated to discover that their stimulus checks didn’t include the child credits — particularly in the first round, when many payments were processed using 2018 returns. If the IRS used your 2018 tax information, you wouldn’t have received a payment for a child born in 2019.
The solution is the same, though: File a tax return. If you file taxes online and provide your direct deposit information, you can expect to get that $1,100 of stimulus money within about three weeks.
Robin Hartill is a certified financial planner and a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She writes the Dear Penny personal finance advice column. Send your tricky money questions to DearPenny@thepennyhoarder.com.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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