There is no fourth stimulus check. Congress has not passed legislation authorizing one, and the deadline to claim any of the three prior federal Economic Impact Payments through the Recovery Rebate Credit closed on April 15, 2025.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Reminds Eligible 2020 and 2021 Non-Filers to Claim Recovery Rebate Credit Before Time Runs Out If you’re seeing offers to “claim your 4th stimulus check,” you’re looking at a state rebate program, an expired federal credit, or a scam.
What Congress Has and Hasn’t Done
The three federal payments came from three separate acts: the CARES Act in March 2020, the COVID-Related Tax Relief Act in December 2020, and the American Rescue Plan in March 2021.2U.S. Department of the Treasury. Economic Impact Payments Each round required its own legislation. Nothing comparable has been enacted since 2021.
In late 2025, there was public discussion of a possible “tariff dividend” payment to lower- and middle-income Americans. As of 2026, no such program has been signed into law or funded by Congress. Until a bill is passed and signed, there is no fourth payment to be eligible for and no application to fill out.
The Recovery Rebate Credit Window Is Closed
If you never received one or more of the three original payments, the way to recover the money was to file the corresponding tax return and claim the Recovery Rebate Credit. The final deadline, for the 2021 return covering the third-round $1,400 payment, was April 15, 2025.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Reminds Eligible 2020 and 2021 Non-Filers to Claim Recovery Rebate Credit Before Time Runs Out The IRS will not process new claims for any of the three rounds.
If you filed on time and disagree with how the IRS calculated your credit, the agency has published topic-specific FAQs and asks that you use its website rather than call.3Internal Revenue Service. 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit Questions and Answers To verify what you were paid in each round, sign into your IRS Online Account at irs.gov. The “Get My Payment” tool used during the pandemic is no longer active.
State Payments Are the Only Direct Relief Available
With no federal check in the pipeline, the direct payments reaching households in 2026 come from individual states, and they don’t follow one set of rules. Several states are returning budget surpluses through tax rebates. Amounts range from under $150 per filer in states doing broad rebates to several hundred dollars in states with larger surpluses or narrower targeting. A handful of states focus on property tax relief, with benefits that can reach $1,000 or more for qualifying homeowners. Others have expanded their earned income tax credits, which flow through the state refund automatically.
Most programs require that you filed a state income tax return for the relevant year and lived in the state for the full year. Income caps differ sharply from one program to the next, and some are far below the thresholds the federal stimulus used. Your state’s department of revenue website is the reliable place to check both eligibility and whether any step beyond filing your regular return is required.
Do You Owe Federal Tax on a State Rebate?
Whether a state rebate is federally taxable depends on how you filed and why the state sent the money. The IRS has published a framework covering most of these programs.4Internal Revenue Service. IRS Issues Guidance on State Tax Payments
If you took the standard deduction on your federal return, a state tax refund or rebate is not federally taxable. You never deducted those state taxes, so there’s nothing to recapture. If you itemized and deducted state taxes, you may have to include the rebate in federal income, but only to the extent the deduction actually reduced your federal tax. Because the state and local tax deduction is capped at $10,000, many itemizers find the rebate still isn’t taxable because they had already hit the cap.
Payments made under a general welfare program, aimed at helping people based on financial need, are excluded from federal income entirely regardless of how you filed.5Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2023-56 – Federal Income Tax Consequences of Certain State Payments The payment must come from a government fund, be based on individual or family need, and not be compensation for work. Many pandemic-era and inflation-relief payments qualified.
How to Spot a Fourth Stimulus Check Scam
Public talk of a possible new federal payment is exactly the environment scammers work in. A few rules cut through it.
The IRS does not initiate contact by email, text message, or social media about stimulus payments. Any message asking you to verify eligibility, click a link, or hand over personal information to claim a fourth check is fraudulent, because no such program exists to claim. If Congress ever enacts one, official details will be posted at irs.gov and delivered through the agency’s standard channels, which for prior rounds meant a physical confirmation letter mailed to your address on file.6Internal Revenue Service. Economic Impact Payments
Report suspicious messages claiming to be from the IRS or Treasury through the phishing report page at irs.gov. And for anything a message says you’re owed, verify by signing into your IRS Online Account directly, not through any link you were sent.