The IRS said most taxpayers eligible for the federal stimulus payments, formally known as Economic Impact Payments, have already received them. The automatic payments will be sent to the bank account listed on the taxpayer’s 2023 return or to the address IRS has on file. The IRS payments will be direct deposited into a taxpayer’s bank account or arrive via paper check. The current IRS payments will go to qualified taxpayers who filed a 2021 tax return, but left the Recover Rebate Credit data field blank or wrote in $0.
Taxpayers who receive a payment will also receive a separate letter notifying them of the claim. On Wednesday, new government inflation data showed core inflation — excluding food and energy prices — slowed in December, which helped prompt a stock market rally. Even with that progress, the Federal Reserve still has work to do to reach its 2% inflation target. If you’re eligible to receive a payment, you do not need to do anything, according to the IRS. A rebate is a partial refund of the purchase price that a consumer paid, often upon meeting certain conditions – more like a discount that is refunded after the purchase versus a discount that is applied at the point of sale. Emery Winter is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and previously worked for TEGNA’S VERIFY national fact-checking team.
«Special» payments will only be sent to qualified taxpayers who qualify for the credit. The IRS has defined «qualified taxpayers» as those who filed a 2021 tax return but left the data field for the Recovery Rebate Credit or filled out $0 when the individual was eligible to receive the credit. Several states, including New York, have sent or are sending out «inflation relief checks» to residents who paid higher sales taxes due to inflation.
The money will will be directly deposited into eligible people’s bank accounts or sent in the mail by a paper check. The checks come as the IRS said it’s distributing about $2.4 billion to taxpayers who failed to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns. People who missed one of the COVID stimulus payments or had received less than the full amount were able to claim the credit.
Stimulus payments will also go out automatically to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients who were not required to file tax returns for 2018 or 2019. Like Social Security beneficiaries, SSDI beneficiaries also receive SSA-1099 benefits statements every January, which the IRS will use to send the payments. Some taxpayers are still waiting on the possibility of a stimulus check in 2025 from President Donald Trump or a previous unclaimed stimulus from the Internal Revenue Service. Here’s what to know about the second, third and fourth stimulus checks, amounts and an update on their status.
“Looking at our internal data, we realized that one million taxpayers overlooked claiming this complex credit when they were actually eligible,” IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. If you do not receive an automatic payment and believe you are eligible, you may claim the Recovery Rebate Credit by filing a 2021 tax return, if you haven’t done so already. A family of four — including a married couple and two qualifying dependents claimed on their tax returns — may receive up to $5,600.
U.S. Department of the Treasury.» U.S. Treasury, home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases. «News Releases for Current Month
However, the IRS has not tracked how many Pennsylvanians are expected to receive their unclaimed credit this year, a spokesperson said on Jan. 2. The payment, as always, is tax-free and will not impact benefits from other programs such as Medicaid, SNAP, Social Security, Veterans Affairs, or Railroad Retirement. So who exactly is eligible to get a payment, and how will you know if you are expected to receive one? The claim spread through multiple (archived) posts (archived) on X as well as on TikTok (archived) and Facebook (archived). Snopes readers submitted questions by email asking if the claim was true, and people searched for information about the claim on our website.
«To minimize headaches and get this money to eligible taxpayers, we’re making these payments automatic, meaning these people will not be required to go through the extensive process of filing an amended return to receive it,» Werfel said. Taxpayers who did not claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns are eligible for the latest stimulus check. In February, Trump had said he would consider a plan to pay out $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpayers in the form of a “DOGE dividend,” using part of the 20% of the savings identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and giving it back to taxpayers. However, he has not shared any further specifics or details about the possible “DOGE dividend” or its certainty since. The IRS recently announced that those payments must be returned the agency.
These are one-time payments with varying amounts based on income, with individuals earning up to $75,000 receiving $200, and married couples filing jointly earning up to $150,000 receiving $400. The size of the check will decrease based on income for individuals who earned more than $75,000 based on their federal tax return for 2019 (or their 2018 return if they have not filed yet). The payment for individuals will shrink by $5 for every $100 earned over $75,000. For couples who filed jointly, the reduction will start once they earn more than $150,000; for heads of household, at $112,500. stimulus checks AARP worked to ensure that individuals who are collecting Social Security benefits for retirement, disability or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will be eligible for the stimulus payments. AARP also successfully fought to guarantee that low-income Social Security recipients will receive the full $1,200 check, not $600 as originally proposed.