2008 tax return and stimulus check

[julie-clark]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
I had read that the stimulus check recieved last year would not affect the return recieved when filing taxes this year, but my boyfreind filed online yesterday and when it asked the ammount he recieved last year he put $300. the refund ammount showed 2000 for his return. well today it came back rejected due to an error and he changed the ammount to $600 (we couldnt remember which it was) and with the correction his new refund ammount showed 1700 so it was pretty clear they deducted the ammount of the stimulus check from his return. so my question is, was this an error and if so how do we get it corrected now that he has submitted his return online?

[ShyCat]

What happened is that by entering only $300, the remaining $300 that he claimed had not be paid to him last year was ADDED to this year's tax refund ($1700 plus $300 = $2000). The IRS rejected his return because their records indicated that he had in fact received $600. So when he corrected his return to reflect last year's $600 stimulus payment, his refund was restored to the correct amount of $1700. He was not owed an additional $300; he already received it last year.

[julie-clark]

You are so right and if we had realized that 300 on the stimulus check would have meant they still owed us 300 that would have been clearer. with our thinking a recovery rebate was more for those still owed money because they didnt recieve a check or didnt get the full ammount for their dependents or exemptions and thinking 300 was the full amount for a single filer it appeared more that they were subtracting the 300 we claimed rather than adding the 300 we didnt. once i saw the worksheet it was clear. thanks so much for your response and sorry to have not done my homework before posting such a stupid question lol true blonde here!

[ShyCat]

No worries, this has confused many people... and we all have those "blonde" moments.