How to claim stimulus payments for dummies?

Hi
We’ve dropped the ball on this one. Where to begin... Here is the situation in a nutshell:

• My wife is American but I’m not and we live in the U.K.
• She has no income and hasn’t filed taxes for previous years (but reading through this section seems that she should have)
• We haven’t received any stimulus payments or any letters/forms

So how should we rectify this? What’s the easiest way to file taxes? Is it free?

Secondly, I understand that there is a mechanism to get the missed payments in your 2020 tax return. What do you need to do here?

Thanks so much

The following website gives some guidance. I’ve not had to do so myself and I’m sure you do not have to use the efile app in the article.

https://www.efile.com/tax-return/

Non-Filer, Zero Income: If you have zero or no income and are not normally required to file a tax return, you can just file a 2020 Tax Return to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit and be done. Instructions on how to file a zero income 2020 Tax Return to claim stimulus payments.

Thanks @durhamlad

Ok here is what we learned and did as a first time filers with zero knowledge of the US tax system. I’m not saying that’s the best way but seemed to work so far and might help someone in the future.

• If you’ve no income, you are not required to file a tax return but it might be beneficial in certain situations like this one
• If you’ve missed the stimulus payments, the way to apply for a refund now is to file your taxes. There’s a section in the 2020 tax 1040 form around Recovery Rebate Credit
• You can file electronically using the free file (https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free). There’s a list of providers on the IRS website and some of them are free if you’re under a certain threshold
• First order of business is to determine the filing status. For married people there seems to be a couple choices but because I’m a nonresident alien, the easiest seems to be “Married filing separately”. As far as I understood there might be tax advantages if you file jointly under normal circumstances, i.e. work and live in the US but in our case it seemed like the better option. Also, I think if we want to go down the joint approach, I would need to request a “Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)” from the IRS. I used this tool to confirm my suspicions - https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/what-is-my-filing-status
• The next problem was choosing a provider. I tried several but there were some annoying hurdles each time. With a few  (incl. TurboTax, FreeTaxUSA) I got stuck at the bit where they wanted the spouse social security  number. It’s a bit annoying because all you’ve to type in on the form is NRA (nonresident alien) but a lot of these websites don’t allow that. I understand that there might be some hacks you can do to (e.g. 999-88-9999) but didn’t want to go down this route. Another problem I encountered is that my wife doesn’t have a US phone. Some websites insist on that (e.g. TaxAct). The solution here is some sort of virtual phone service. Long story short - after battling 3-4 free e-file providers I found https://expatfile.tax/ which costs $99 but it took me less than 10 min and by that time the situation was getting desperate. It filled out the 1040 form with the correct foreign address/post code, spouse social security number (NRA), the rebate refund and boom. Job done. It seemed pricey just to submit a single form electronically but didn’t want to risk it the first time around. Might be able to crack these free ones next year Filed electronically last night, it was submitted immediately (although they say up-to 48 hours), the IRS accepted it this morning and I can have verified that here - https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp
  

We haven’t received the payments yet. So all of this might not work but in terms of filing seems to have been accepted by the IRS.

Hope that helps someone

That is a great summary and very useful to know. Thanks for taking the time in making this post.

My son lives in the UK and took a year out in 2020 so has zero income. He would like to file since he has filed every year up to now and will be filing again as he went back to work here in England in February. A year with no filing might seem odd to the IRS plus he enjoys receiving those stimulus payments.

Just jumping in to share my experience in case it helps someone or their kids who have US citizenship. I always filed my taxes once I got my first part time job in high school--except for one year after college when I was traveling and volunteering. I looked through all the documentation and it seemed I didn't make enough to file so I didn't. However, a couple years later not filing counted against me when I was looking at mortgages and didn't qualify for the FHA mortgage. I have no clue if that's still the case, but it seems, especially now that there are so many online options to file, that it's worth doing every year as a just in case, even if you've made a paltry amount.