A bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the Internal Revenue Service to extend the deadline for families to file to receive a stimulus check from the CARES Act on behalf of their dependents.
In late March, Congress allocated stimulus checks to middle-income individuals and families in an economic relief package spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. For each dependent in the household, guardians were to receive $500. Many eligible people, however, did not receive funding for each dependent because the stimulus checks were dispersed based on tax information from 2018 or 2019.
Some families are not required by law to file taxes each year. Individuals who earn less than $12,200 per year are not required to file. According to a report from CNN, as many as 10 million U.S. citizens fall into that category, including people on Social Security with children who are dependents.
Families who do not regularly file taxes did not have each of their dependents counted in the allocation from the federal government. A window for nonfilers had been open on the IRS website since April 10, but people on Social Security were told they would not need to provide additional information to get their payment.
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The IRS issued a “special alert” for individuals on Social Security with dependents on Monday, notifying the public that people in this group would need to file an additional form to receive the payment for their dependents. That portal remained open for only 48 more hours after the guidance was issued.
Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, joined dozens of other members of Congress in a letter urging IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to extend the deadline and reopen the portal for families to register their dependents.
“Just three days ago, the IRS sent out a ‘special alert’ notifying the public of this impending deadline, which I am confident too many households have not been able to meet. This notice required Social Security recipients and retirees caring for children to complete an online form, under a seemingly unreasonable deadline and with varying degrees of technical difficulties, which may well be a hardship for families during this pandemic,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Many of these families have not historically been required to complete a tax filing. If they missed this deadline, they will be forced to wait until next year to receive this payment. With the administrative delays associated with processing ordinary payments, this will be a harsh penalty for these citizens,” they added.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the IRS for comment.
The management of the coronavirus stimulus checks has been called into question by some, including by Rep. Thomas Massie, who said he knew of at least one deceased person who received a stimulus check. Massie claimed the error was “just the tip of the iceberg.”
