IRS Deadline to Claim $1,400 Stimulus Check Is Tomorrow: What to Know

Newsweek ^ | 4/14/25 | Suzanne Blake

[Libloather]

Americans are running out of time to claim a $1,400 stimulus check.

Tuesday marks Tax Day as well as the three-year deadline to claim tax refunds and credits for the year 2021. That includes the $1,400 Recovery Rebate Credit, which some still haven't filed for and received.

Why It Matters

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government approved several rounds of stimulus payments to Americans as they navigated economic uncertainty.

However, many never claimed the payments if they did not file for 2021 taxes. This included Americans who were not required to file but still qualified for the payment.

What To Know

Those who qualify for the $1,400 stimulus check have until tomorrow, April 15, to file for the payment. At that point, the money will go back to the Treasury and they will miss out on it for good.

To earn the check, you must file for 2021 taxes, so you'll need all W-2 and other employment and income forms regarding that tax year.

[Libloather]

Could donate it to FR.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Who are those who qualify?

I just spent about 20 hours calculating my taxes. I had to pay tax out of my 401-k retirement account, which was not supposed to be taxed, plus a penalty for not paying estimated taxes.

Now I must spend more time to “earn” my check from the government, the funds of which were formerly my money?

[trebb]

Once you start taking the Minimum Required Distribution, you get dinged big time for taxes -else, you shouldn’t have to pay taxes on a qualified IRA.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Once you start taking the Minimum Required Distribution, you get dinged big time for taxes -else, you shouldn’t have to pay taxes on a qualified IRA

><

I agree you should not have to; however:

In 2017-18 the law was changed so that MLPs in IRAs can be taxed for non-business related income.

So, when my taxes were due last year, I did not pay my estimated taxes from my 401-k. Never mind the 990-t forms were not availible from my broker on April 15, so I had no way of knowing how much I owed. I made an appointment and went to the IRS office for clarification, and the office is a DEI operation and no one knew anything. My letter to the IRS in January to request an abatement remains unanswered.

Those younger people with healthy IRAs beware. The spendthrift government will target your IRA accounts once the Uniparty gets back into power.

[asinclair]

you shouldn’t have to pay taxes on a qualified IRA

The Individual Retirement Account was a way to defer paying taxes on that savings to a time when you are in a lower tax bracket. It was a tax deferral, not a tax forgiveness. That was the idea. (That's what I remember when I first hears about the plan.)

The problem has been "bracket creep": as people's earnings increased, they were pushed into a higher tax bracket. The devaluation of the dollar means that, in retirement, you have to draw out more from the IRA to maintain the same lifestyle, which means paying more taxes because the tax rate tables haven't allowed for the loss of buying power. Savers lose.

Taxes on my Social Security have to be paid from those IRA savings because I'm out of the labor force, and thus have no income outside of SSA and my investments. Sucks to be old.

[Big Red Badger]

BFL

[lurk]

Stimulus money. Financial heroin.

[Svartalfiar]

What about my stimulus check for 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025? Congress just kept passing CRs, so the funding for those was re-added each following year too!

[Fireone]

All true, which is why a well-invested Roth IRA turned out to be a blessing. Pay the taxes at your current rate (which is certain to be lower than when you retire), then invest and keep your tax-free capital gains.

[plain talk]

I now face huge RMDs. I kind of wished I had withdrew more of that money earlier in retirement. However I enjoyed the lower taxes and my strategy has been to avoid taxes as long as possible.