Recover · Second Look
Second Look Review
A fresh, careful re-check of the last 3 years you already filed — for credits missed and errors made. No guarantee of finding money; an honest check, free to start. A Second Look re-runs your filed years against the credit library and the transcript record — the same checks our Missing-Credit Finder runs — and tells you plainly whether an amendment is worth filing.
Education only — not personal tax advice. Personal questions route to a credentialed pro.
What a second look can find
Earned Income Tax Credit errors
The EITC is the most-missed and most-miscalculated credit in America — roughly 1 in 5 eligible taxpayers never claim it, and small income or residency mistakes change it by hundreds of dollars.
Child credits claimed wrong
A child who aged out, a custody arrangement that moved the credit to the wrong parent, or the $500 Credit for Other Dependents skipped entirely.
Missed education credits
American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning credits left on the table when tuition was paid — up to $2,500 per student, per year.
Wrong filing status
Head of household filed as single (or the reverse) quietly changes the standard deduction and every bracket.
Saver's Credit and dependent care
Retirement contributions and childcare costs that were never run through the credit math.
Withholding and estimate mismatches
Payments the IRS has on record that never made it onto the return — visible on your transcript, invisible in most software.
The window is real — and it closes
An amended return that claims a refund must generally be filed within 3 years of the original filing date (or 2 years of paying the tax, if later) under IRC §6511. After that, even a real, provable missed credit is forfeited. The refund-claim windows for the last three filed years, read from the tax-year tables:
Your exact deadline depends on when you actually filed and paid — a pro confirms it from your account transcript before anyone amends anything.
What happens next
- Run the finder. Answer the same plain questions in “Am I Missing Anything?” for each filed year.
- Compare against the transcript. Your IRS account transcript shows what the IRS recorded — income, payments, and prior amendments. The Concierge walks you through pulling it yourself; we never ask for your IRS password or IP PIN.
- If something is real, amend on Form 1040-X. Recent years can usually be e-filed as amendments once e-file is live here; older ones go by paper, like the Unfiled Years Factory packets. Amending is a preparer-grade task — the pro route exists for exactly this.
- If nothing is found, you pay nothing and learn something. A clean second look is a result, not a sales call.
Start with the free finder Talk to a pro about amending
Said plainly: a Second Look may find money, and it may find nothing. Any service that guarantees it will find money in your old returns is selling you something. We check; we show the math; you decide.