Ask Terry Questions Stimulus and dependents

Stimulus and dependents

By Terry Savage on March 10, 2021 | Wild Card

With the upcoming stimulus payment getting ready to go out I understand that they are going off of our 2020 tax return filing.

I have a 17yr old daughter who we did not get any stimulus payments for with the 1st or 2nd payments due to being the age of 17. This time around it seems as though we should get this payment as they increased the age of dependents, but they are sending these payments to who claimed the child on 2020 tax returns. Her father and I alternate who claims her as a dependent and he was able to claim her on the tax return for 2020.
Question is how do I get this payment sent to us since she does not live with her father and has only spend maybe 10 days with him the entire year of 2020?

My other question is can she get her stimulus payment for any of the rounds of payments since she files taxes and works full time? Will she have to amend her tax return since we already filed her taxes.?

Terry Says

Tell her father NOT to claim her as a dependent on 2020, nor should you If she files, she should say she cannot be claimed as a dependent. Then she will get her own check. Why didn’t you do that in the first place — before you filed her taxes, so she could claim the earlier payments too?? Yes, amend immediately. And tell her father he will be getting a call from the IRS if he claims her now that she can file as an independent!

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