It was as long ago as the end of March that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was tasked with the admittedly monumental challenge of distributing Economic Impact Payments (EIP), more commonly known as the stimulus payments, to all eligible adults and their dependent children. Since then they have handed out close to 160 million of those payments in one form or another but there still remain a considerable number of eligible individuals who are still waiting. The IRS has come to recognize that issue and has now sought help from its own Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), which functions as an independent organization within the IRS, to help expedite those payments.
Together they have identified five situations where individuals have so far missed out but who will now be helped. They are as follows:
Dependent Payments: This category includes families who may have received the $1200 payments for the parents but did not get the $500 for any or all of their children under the age of eighteen. The assistance will only be available to those families who managed to use the ‘non-filers’ tool on the IRS website in the short window that it was open. Those who didn’t file taxes in 2018 or 2019 and who missed out on recording their ‘non-filer’ status on the IRS website at that time will still have to wait.
Injured Spouses: This is all about parents in arrears for child support. Those who are in this situation had to have those arrears taken from their check unless they filed a specific form that requested that that not be the case. The IRS has just realized that they accidently denied payments to everyone in this situation, whether they filed the form or not. TAS will now try to rectify things with those who did submit that form.
Return Math Errors: If your payment was reduced because of poor calculations made by the IRS when you filed your taxes they will now be making sure that you get the right amount.
Identity Theft Victims: This one’s self-explanatory but a fair few people unfortunately fell into this category. They’ll now get some help.
Surviving Spouses and Spouses of Incarcerated Individuals: The IRS accidentally sent out payments to lots of dead people and to those who are incarcerated and thus ineligible. However, their spouses may be eligible for at least a portion of those checks and so TAS will be on the case for them too.
If you feel you are in one of those situations you can contact TAS at 877-777-4778 to see what they can do for you. As might be expected, it’s still going to take a while but at least the effort is being made.