US tax authorities have announced that special, $1,400 payments are going out to 1 million taxpayers who did not claim under the 2021 recovery rebate scheme, in what may be a final installment of pandemic-era stimulus checks.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said in an advisory that the disbursements were a “special step” after a review found that many eligible taxpayers who did not receive one or more Economic Impact Payments (EIP), also known as stimulus “stimi” payments.
There were three rounds of EIP payments to US citizens during the pandemic, totaling $4,500, which amounted to approximately $931bn between April 2020 and December 2021, according to the US treasury department.
The estimated amount of payments going out will be about $2.4bn.
The coronavirus aid, relief and economic security (Cares) Act of 2020 provided the largest amount of funding, $1.8tn, to combat both the healthcare crisis as well as the ensuing economic fallout of the pandemic.
But trillions more was spent through other government programs and treasury department efforts.
The IRS said in a statement that no action was needed for eligible taxpayers to receive these payments, and payments would arrive this month or by late January, and made by direct deposit or check.
“The IRS continues to work hard to make improvements and help taxpayers,” IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “These payments are an example of our commitment to go the extra mile for taxpayers.”
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The late stocking-stuffer payouts for about 1 million Americans come as federal authorities continue to trace billions of dollars in Covid-19 relief that may have been fraudulently obtained.
A report by the justice department’s Covid-19 fraud enforcement task force (CFETF) in April said criminal charges against more than 3,500 defendants for losses of more than $2bn had been brought and more than $1.4bn seized or forfeited.
“Our work is not over,” attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement. “We will continue our efforts to investigate and prosecute pandemic relief fraud and to recover the assets that have been stolen from American taxpayers.”
Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco called for an extension of the statute of limitations “for prosecutors to recover hundreds of millions of dollars more in fraud proceeds, bring remaining offenders to justice, and disrupt criminal networks that continue to victimize our citizens”.
