The Internal Revenue Service has three years to audit your tax returns and if it detects a material error, this time can be extended. At Globe Live Media we explain under what situations you would have to return some or all of your stimulus checks
By now, most Americans should already have their three stimulus checks in their hands, approved by the Joe Biden government to help families hit by the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. If you were not eligible to receive this economic relief, you should not claim victory, since the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, for its acronym in English) can still take it away from you.
And is that the IRS has three years to audit tax returns. So in that time you may find some reason to determine that you were not eligible to receive the economic stimulus. Furthermore, if they find a material error on your forms, they can add additional years to review.
Although the chances of being audited are relatively low, if you are audited and the IRS asks you to return the stimulus funds granted, it is because they detected any of the following situations:
1.- If you got too much income
Each stimulus check was intended for people with certain income limits. These limits were no more than $99,000 per year for single people for the first stimulus check; for the second stimulus check the income limit was $87,000 and for the third stimulus check it was $80,000. If you exceeded these amounts, the IRS will probably ask you to return the stimulus check(s).
2.- If you received a check from someone who died
This applies to spouses. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was such a high mortality from Covid-19, that the IRS did not have their databases updated, so that is why they could have given you a stimulus check even if your husband or wife had died.
3.- If you are a non-resident foreigner
Foreign residents were eligible for the three stimulus checks, however, the situation changes if you are not a resident. In this case, you must pay the money back to the IRS.
4.- If you received a double payment
It may be that the IRS has made the mistake of sending you the same stimulus check twice, so you must return the part that did not correspond to you.
To know that you must return a stimulus check, the Internal Revenue Service will contact you to make it known to you through a letter that will be sent to you by mail.