Many endure frustrating wait for their much-needed stimulus check
MINNEAPOLIS » Gail Harless figured it’d be simple enough. Go to the IRS website, plug in 2018 tax information and stimulus money would land in her checking account.
All she got were errors and rising frustration as the weeks ticked by.
“Will I ever get my money?” she now wonders.
Congress in late March earmarked $300 billion in direct payouts to Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic, providing tax-free rebates to help buy groceries and pay rent. But millions are still waiting.
“The thing that annoys me,” said Harless, 65, who retired as a data analyst last year, “is they said if you’re receiving Social Security through auto deposit you don’t have to do anything. Then I go to the IRS website and they act like they don’t know who I am.”
The Treasury Department
has sent $200 billion to more than 130 million citizens so far. About $3.7 billion of that has landed in the mailboxes and bank accounts of more than 2 million Minnesotans.
The IRS wouldn’t provide more detailed stateby-state data. But based on state tax returns and other estimates, at least 1 million Minnesotans could still be looking for the money.
On Friday, the Treasury and IRS said they’ve taken steps to speed up the payments. They urged people who are still waiting to use the “Get My Payment” on the website by Wednesday.
“We’re working hard to get more payments quickly to taxpayers,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. “Time is running out for a chance to get these payments several weeks earlier through direct deposit.”
As weeks go by and bills keep stacking up, more Minnesotans are annoyed.
“I find it unacceptable that you cannot call the IRS,” said Kimberly Malone, a state government employee who lives in Brooklyn Center.
Her family of four, with children ages 2 and 8, is due to receive $3,400. The endless loop of bright red error messages now has her seeing red.
“Hopefully we will get a check in the mail soon,” she said.
The government checks are part of a massive $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package known as the CARES Act.
About nine in 10 American households are expected to receive a payment, according to estimates from the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center.
Individuals with a Social Security number who earn up to $75,000 a year in adjusted gross income will receive the full $1,200. Married couples who file joint tax returns will receive $2,400 if their adjusted gross income is under $150,000. Families receive another $500 for each child under 17.
Payments drop for those who make more. The program is capped for individuals whose income is more than $99,000 and married joint filers earning more than $198,000.