I am individual filing married filing jointly for past 4years. I have never claimed/received Bush Recovery Rebate of 2008 due to lack of SSN for my wife. My wife was not eligible to receive SSN as she was on H4 visa before last year. My total should be $1500 (for me, my wife, one kid). My wife received SSN last year Oct 2009. My kid is US citizen 3yr old. My AGI in 2007 was $31,101 and taxable income in 2007 was$10,201. I claimed $1,000 as child tax credit during the year. So my total tax liability was $23.



This year I want to claim the Bush Recovery Rebate of 2008 as all of us have SSN and both me and my wife are permanent residents of this country. Will I be eligible as federal benefits are valid to be claimed for 3yrs? If yes, will I have to amend 2007 (or 2008) returns and file along with my 2009 returns? I would really appreciate if you can provide me a link (or some knowledge) for this information, as calling IRS multiple times was not useful.



Thanks in advance

Your wife got SSN in 2009 so you can claim Making Work Pay credit in 2009. Use schedule M (Form 1040).

You can not claim stimulus rebate on your 2008 or 2007 return as in that year, your spouse did not have SSN in 2008 or 2007.

Thanks MukatA for the reply. I thought the same but have known someone who was able to claim the stimulus check in 2009 by doing amendment to 2008 returns and in this case the dependent got the SSN in 2009.

If your wife was eligible for a SSN in 2008, then you can claim the RRC by amending the 2008 return.

Otherwise, you cannot go back with a current SSN to claim the RRC.