What is the stimulus payment?

Question on SSI and stimulus payment also what are they doing if they sent you too much?

• My father is on SSI and gets a VA disability pension. Should he have filed something to get the stimulus? ALso when I filed my taxes I filed and claimed my fiance's sons. They said I couldn't do this because we were not married yet. I filed an amended return which had no dependents on it. When I got the letter about the stimulus payment it said I would get $900.00. I told him that was not right because of the amended return. When I got my check the other day it was $900.00. My amended return has been processed and was processed before the check went out but they still sent it based on the original return. I cashed the check. Are they going to say that I owe the IRS now? Thanks

• Answer:

  The IRS has said that for some errors they will not pursue repayment of the stimulus check. In your case, you claimed children that you were never eligible to claim as qualifying children. (There was a remote chance they were eligible to be on your tax return as qualifying relatives, but that's not how you claimed them. Qualifying relatives were not eligible for the stimulus.) So what did you put on the return for their relationship to you? Stepchild? Nephew? Foster Child? Didn't that clue you in that you were making a mistake? You may or may not get a letter from the IRS asking for the money back. I wouldn't spend the money. As for your dad, if he's not a dependent of someone else and he had at least $3000 of VA benefits, he can file for the stimulus by submitting a 1040A. The SSI does NOT count. Additional info, the tax place you used was in error. In 2004, the IRS would have allowed you to claim the children as "foster children" if they lived with you all year, you paid for mroe than half of their support and treated them as your own children even if you were not related to them by blood or marriage. (You would not have been eligible for EIC with a foster child under this definition.) In 2005, the rules changed. For the past 3 tax seasons, the IRS has strictly enforced the rules for "qualifying children." For all years you can only claim them as "stepchildren" if you are actually married to their father. Either you implied you were married or the tax preparer was poorly trained. Many preparers look at the prior year return and assume it was correct and do not question it during the current year. If you accidentally claimed them as stepchildren in 2005 or 2006, you need to go back and amend the tax returns. Usually when the IRS catches you on an audit, they immediately check the prior 2 years as well. As for the errors by the IRS. Yes, it does happen. That doesn't stop you from owing the tax, but can ease penalties and the EIC 2/10 year ban. The IRS *did* clarify that for 2005-2007, if the parent(s) who lived with the child could be claimed as dependents, then someone else could claim their child, but only as a qualifying relative, not a qualifying child. Unfortunately for you, the father's $6000 of income meant he couldn't be claimed as a dependent because he made too much money.