The IRS sent letters to about 9 million Americans who haven’t received an incentive check to remind them that they need to submit their information by Nov. 21. That includes college students, as well as individuals and households who don’t generally file tax returns, usually because of short earnings.
For those who don’t generally file returns, you have until 3 p.m. EST Saturday to report for an Economic Impact Payment. You may also be eligible to get a $1,200 payment for a spouse and $500 for each qualifying child.
You can use the IRS’s nonfiler tool to file to obtain their payments this year if you don’t usually file a tax return. Those who can’t access the online tool can file a simplified paper return instead.
Get Your Money If You Are Eligible
If you don’t act before then, you can still get your money if you’re eligible, but you’ll have to wait until next year and claim it as a recovery rebate credit on your 2020 income tax return.
“When people file their 2020 taxes next year and they weren’t eligible for an Economic Impact Payment this year, they may be eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit,” The IRS website read.
Anyone who earned the full Economic Impact Payment amount during 2020 for both themselves and their qualifying children can’t get the credit, the agency said.
To be sure, individuals must meet the credential to get a direct payment. That includes having a valid Social Security number, holding U.S. citizen or resident alien status and not having been claimed as someone else’s dependent on a federal income tax return.
Issue Of Economic Impact Payments
“In partnership with the U.S. Treasury Department, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Social Security Administration and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and software industry partners, the IRS has issued about 160 million Economic Impact Payments estimating approximately $270 billion,” the release remarked.
Lawmakers have remained in a stalemate during months over further relief, and now to work through their legislative agenda ahead of the Thanksgiving recess.
Millions of Americans have already received their Economic Impact Payments authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which was passed in March.
After Congress passed the CARES Act that included direct payments to help shore up the economy. But as of October, there were more than 12 million eligible Americans who still hadn’t claimed theirs, according to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan research institute.
Nikki Dunn, a certified financial planner who founded the She Talks Finance online community said This has been a really chaotic year, and the IRS has been bombarded with issues from the start with this thing, I think they need to give people more time, maybe March 2021. But unfortunately, this seems to be the direction they’re taking.”
The initial deadline to register for a stimulus check was Oct. 15, but the IRS extended it an additional five weeks to “provide more time for those who have not yet received a payment to register to get their money, including those in low-income and underserved communities,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement.
