Color of Money

Under the Cares Act, estates aren’t eligible for a stimulus payment. Yet, Griffith received a letter from the IRS dated May 15 indicating her friend, Joan Duprey, who had lived in Honolulu, would receive a $1,200 stimulus payment by check or a debit card. But next to Duprey’s name were the letters “DECD,” indicating the IRS knew she was deceased. The promised funds haven’t arrived yet.

Even with the federal deficit at an all-time high, trying to chase down $1.4 billion — a tiny percentage of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package — is futile, and unfair to the recipients, given that the IRS has a system in place that should have largely avoided sending stimulus payments to dead people in the first place.

On May 6, the IRS issued guidance about ineligible payments. To find the information, recipients had to know to go to the agency’s Economic Impact Payment Information Center page at irs.gov and navigate through the frequently asked questions. “Ineligible payment recipients who do not visit IRS’s website or do not have Internet access may not be aware of the process to return payments,” the GAO report said.

The IRS doesn’t even have a plan to directly notify ineligible recipients on how to return payments, the GAO said.

“If they don’t provide a timely, clear way for people to send the money back, I don’t think that’s right to approach people to get it back,” said Griffith, who says she’ll return the money if it ever appears. “Ethically, I believe it should be given back. No question in my

mind. But practically, I don’t think they’ve created a situation where people can easily do that.”

With the IRS still fielding a reduced staff because of the coronavirus pandemic, their attempts to snatch back the stimulus money aren’t cost-effective. The IRS is already overwhelmed, with the tax deadline delayed until July 15. Millions of paper returns with refunds due must be processed. Tax fraudsters trying to steal a lot more than $1, 200 have to be pursued.

And the agency is still trying to send legitimate stimulus payments to eligible Americans.

“As of today, I still haven’t received a relief check, and I’m a non-filing Social Security recipient,” said Guy Walker from Hillsdale, N.Y.

Is the IRS really going to allocate resources to track down surviving spouses or heirs to recover stimulus money that the recipients honestly didn’t know they couldn’t spend? After all, the intent of the economic impact payments was to stimulate the economy.

Yes, it’s shocking that $1.4 billion in stimulus payments were sent to dead people. But it’s too late for the IRS to try to claw back those funds. Let it go.

Readers can write to Michelle Singletary c/o The Washington Post, 1301 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20071. Her email address is michelle.singletary@ washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter (@SingletaryM) or Facebook (www.facebook. com/MichelleSingletary). Comments and questions are welcome, but due to the volume of mail, personal responses may not be possible. Please also note comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer’s name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated.