Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
It could be mid-August before some see checks
WASHINGTON — The federal government expects to begin making payments to millions of Americans under the new stimulus law in the middle of this month, but some people without direct-deposit information may not get checks until mid-August or later, according to a memo obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
The document from the House Ways and Means Committee says the IRS
will make about 60 million payments to Americans through direct deposit in mid-April. The IRS has directdeposit information for these individuals from their 2018 or 2019 tax returns.
The plan is to generate electronic checks on April 9, according to the payment schedule reviewed by The Washington Post. Depending on how quickly banks process the payments, they would be deposited by the week of April 13 at the latest.
“If we know where to put the money, we’re going to press the button and put it there next week,” said an IRS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.
Then, starting the week of May 4, the IRS will begin issuing paper checks to individuals, the memo says. The paper checks will be issued at a rate of about 5 million per week, which means it could take up to 20 weeks to get all the checks out. That timeline would delay some paper checks until the week of Aug. 17.
The IRS plan would distribute paper checks to the lowest-income Americans first, prioritizing payments for individual taxpayers with incomes of $10,000 or less on April 24, according to The Washington Post.
Checks for earners of $20,000 or less would be in the mail May 1, followed by those with incomes of $30,000 on May 8, $40,000 on May 15, and continuing in income increments of $10,000 each week, according to the plan, The Post reported.
Stimulus checks would be issued on Sept. 4 to joint taxpayers earning around $200,000, the maximum allowed under the stimulus. All others would be sent on Sept. 11, in most cases because the IRS did not have previous tax information for them and they need to apply for the checks, according to The Post.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that while he initially pledged to get payments started within three weeks of the law’s adoption, “I’m now committing to two weeks. We’re delivering on our commitments.”
The IRS, which he oversees, will ensure that “within two weeks the first money will be in people’s accounts,” Mnuchin said during a White House briefing.
The memo from the committee’s Democratic majority says the timeline it made public Thursday was based on “extensive conversations with the IRS and the Department of Treasury.” The timeline is subject to change, given ongoing discussions between Congress and the Trump administration.
The payments are part of the $2 trillion rescue package signed into law March 27 by President Donald Trump aimed at combating the economic ravages of the coronavirus outbreak.
Most people don’t need to do anything to get the money.
SOCIAL SECURITY REVERSAL
Reversing an earlier position, the government said this week that Social Security recipients who are not required to file a tax return will receive the stimulus check without having to file a simplified tax return.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the IRS will use the information on the Form SSA-1099 and Form RRB-1099 to generate the $1,200 checks to Social Security recipients who did not file tax returns in 2018 or 2019.
The checks will be issued in reverse order of adjusted gross income, meaning that people with the lowest income will get payments first.
The committee estimates that there are 150 million to 170 million U.S. taxpayers, which leaves 90 million to 110 million taxpayers who are either filers or nonfilers but about whom the IRS wants information.
The filers will need to receive a paper check unless their direct-deposit information can be updated in the IRS portal. Nonfilers may need to file the simple tax return and likely include direct-deposit information if they want to receive their rebates quickly. The IRS is encouraging taxpayers to file their 2019 returns as soon as possible.
The IRS expects to create a portal in late April or early May that will allow taxpayers to find out the status of their rebate payment and update direct-deposit information, the memo says.
Anyone earning up to $75,000 in adjusted gross income and who has a Social Security number will receive a $1,200 payment. That means married couples filing joint returns will receive the full payment — $2,400 — if their adjusted gross income, which is what they report on their taxes, is under $150,000.
The payment steadily declines for those who make more. Those earning more than $99,000, or $198,000 for joint filers, are not eligible. The thresholds are slightly different for those who file as a head of household.
Parents will also receive $500 for each qualifying child.
The IRS did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
PELOSI’S PROPOSALS
Meanwhile, the report that 6.6 million people filed for jobless benefits last week made congressional action on financing infrastructure and other job-creation programs “even more critical,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
told reporters Thursday.
But a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Kentucky Republican had nothing to add to his comments earlier this week that it’s not time for Congress to rush ahead on another stimulus package.
McConnell has told interviewers that lawmakers should first assess the effectiveness of the $2 trillion rescue package enacted last week, and has warned Pelosi against pushing environmental requirements and other Democratic priorities. He suggested to The Washington Post that the next bill should be “credibly paid for,” after last week’s measure was financed by adding more borrowing to a national debt that’s already $21 trillion.
Other Republicans expressed skepticism similar to McConnell’s.
“I’m not opposed to infrastructure. What I’m opposed to is using a crisis to restructure government,” said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
“First things, let’s put out the fire,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a senior Republican from Texas, who said focus was needed on efficiently spending the already approved $2 trillion. “Then we can think more carefully and deliberately about rebuilding the infrastructure.”
Pelosi said she wants the next bill to extend the extra $600 weekly payments above existing state levels that last week’s legislation is providing. That extra amount is due to last four months.
She also wants the plan to contain more money for food stamps and for states to administer the growing numbers of unemployment applicants, plus some kind of protections for renters.
On Thursday, 128 lawmakers, virtually all Democrats, sent Pelosi a letter requesting more relief for small- and medium-sized cities.
OVERSIGHT PANEL FORMED
Also on Thursday, Pelosi announced the creation of a new select committee with subpoena powers to scrutinize the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, as well as its management of the stimulus money.
“Where there’s money, there’s also frequently mischief,” Pelosi said as she announced the creation of the special bipartisan panel.
She said the panel would be headed by No. 3 House Democratic leader James Clyburn of South Carolina and will try guarding against waste, profiteering, price gouging and political favoritism. Pelosi said it was modeled on a Senate committee that oversaw defense spending during World War II.
McCarthy said he opposed Pelosi’s proposal, saying it would take weeks to establish and would duplicate work by existing oversight panels.
The rescue law already signed by Trump established a new special inspector general to oversee the Treasury fund, the separate commission appointed by Congress also empowered to monitor that fund, and a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, composed of existing inspectors general from multiple agencies, to oversee the entire federal response to the coronavirus.
Pelosi’s announcement comes amid growing clashes between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration about oversight of the new rescue legislation and a $500 billion fund controlled by the Treasury Department.
Trump himself lashed out Thursday at Pelosi’s creation of the committee as a “witch hunt” and “ridiculous” and predicted it would ultimately help build up his poll numbers. “I want to remind everyone here in our nation’s capital, especially in Congress, that this is not the time for politics, endless partisan investigations,” Trump said.
Mnuchin said he viewed the new committee as unnecessary, given layers of oversight already built into the rescue legislation.
“Both parties wanted us to have oversight, wanted us to have transparency. We have full transparency,” Mnuchin said.
Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Daly, Alan Fram, Andrew Taylor, Mary Clare Jalonick and Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; and by Erica Werner, Paul Kane, Josh Dawsey, Felicia Sonmez and Lisa Rein of The Washington Post.