How to get your 2020 stimulus check before it’s too late

By Andrew Keshner | March 26, 2024

Three years after the Internal Revenue Service began sending out stimulus checks during the pandemic, the IRS is reminding taxpayers that there’s one more chance to claim any missed-out money and other overlooked refunds from 2020.

But the deadline is coming up fast — on May 17.

Americans always face a three-year deadline to file a tax return to claim a refund. After that, the cash reverts to the Treasury Department.

This year, the clock is running out on returns for 2020, when COVID-19 turned the world upside down.

Not even counting the cash connected to stimulus checks, there’s still more than $1 billion in refund money from 2020 that’s about to slip away from taxpayers, according to the IRS.

While April 18, 2025, is the last chance to file a 2021 tax return to obtain unpaid third-round stimulus money, May 17 marks the last day to claim the money connected to the first and second rounds of stimulus checks.

If someone missed the initial wave of direct payments or didn’t receive the full amount owed, the IRS would square up the final amount once the person filed a tax return. That sum is called a recovery rebate credit.

Of course, the sequence requires a taxpayer to file an income-tax return.

According to IRS estimates, the unclaimed refund money would go to approximately 940,000 households that haven’t yet filed a 2020 return. The average median payout would be $932, it noted.

Now what?

Get your tax forms from 2020 employers and other income sources, the IRS says. These are forms like a  W-2 from an employer, 1099 forms, a Form 1098 related to mortgage interest or a Form 5498 linked to IRAs.

If it’s not possible to track down those forms, the next-best move is obtaining a tax transcript from the IRS. People can file a Form 4506-T to ask the IRS for a wage-and-income transcript, but the agency notes that written requests are going to take time to process.

Once people amass their information, they’ll have to file it. Tax preparers may charge money on a previous year’s return. The site GetYourRefund.org is another option, according to Roxy Caines, campaign director at Get It Back, a project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; the site, built by the nonprofit organization Code for America, is a free service to file the return, she said.

Whichever way a person files, Caines said they’ll have to print and mail in the return, which will slow down the IRS processing time.

Still, people who should have received a larger stimulus-check sum but never filed a return can finally fix it now, she added.

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