Can I appeal the tax year used to calculate qualification for the 3rd covid stimulus check?

Question

My in-laws retired last year and filed taxes early this year. As part of this, their 401(k) was cashed out and represented on their 2020 tax report. Because of this, they did not qualify for the 3rd stimulus check that just went out.
Is there a way to appeal which year was used to calculate qualification status? Had it been based on their 2019 taxes, they would have qualified for the full amount.

Aganju · Accepted Answer

No, you don’t have a choice of the year (otherwise, I‘d use 1968, I had no income at all then).
However, the recent 1400 $ payment is based on 2021 income - only the preliminary calculation is done with 2020 (or 2019, whatever the IRS happens to have). So they have the whole year to plan careful, and get the 1400 per person when they file their taxes for 2021.
They might also have the option to undo the cashing out, and file a correction (but it’s probably too late to get the stimulus right away). Aside from that, cashing out is rarely a good idea…

Can I appeal the tax year used to calculate qualification for the 3rd covid stimulus check?

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