Apparently I don't qualify for the stimulus check because my income was too low?!?!?!?

Question

I earned well over $3,000 last year and paid taxes on this income but when I didn't receive my rebate check after the date specified on the IRS website, I called and entered my info. The automated recording said I did not qualify because I did not earn enough. I am self employed but I filed my taxes on time and claimed well over $3,000 in income. Has anyone else had this happen? I can't seem to get to a person at the IRS!

Answer 1

Did you owe $1000 in taxes? If not you don't qualify.

Answer 2

If you are self employed, it is not your "income" that qualifies, but your "net income."  It is also not your self-employment taxes, but your income taxes (line 57 plus line 52) that determine how much rebate you get...

Per the IRS website: "Net self-employment income that is taken into account in computing taxable income."

If the amount you reported on line 12 as your business income is less than $3,000, then you did not have enough self-employment income to qualify for the rebate.  If you had more then $3,000 of net income, then perhaps you did not report it on the correct line on the 1040.

Answer 3

For self-employed people, it is the net that they look at, not the gross.

For example:  A self-employed person had $10,000 in expenses but also had $8,000 in expenses claimed on their Schedule C.  For rebate purposes, their income was only $2000 making them ineligible for the rebate.

Answer 4

When you say you claimed well over $3000 in se income, are you talking about the net, the amount that's at the bottom of your schedule C and carries over to your 1040, minus the 1/2 of se tax that's used as an adjustment?  That's what has to be $3000, not the total revenue.

If you have your self employment income showing on line 7, you have a really messed up return - that's for wages, not se income.

And by the way, the first letter in March didn't tell you that you were eligible, it said "you MAY BE eligible".