Stimulus payment deadline you can’t afford to miss if you’re still waiting

WASHINGTON » Tens of millions of Americans have gotten their stimulus payments. But some people are still waiting for relief — either for their dependent children, or because they earn too little to file a tax return. And an upcoming Oct. 15 deadline for filing is one many can’t afford to miss.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (Cares) Act provides economic impact payments of up to $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for taxpayers filing a joint tax return. The law also includes an extra $500 for each child who was under 17 at the end of 2019. You don’t need earned income or a job to qualify for a stimulus payment, also known as an Economic Impact Payment (EIP). Under the Cares Act, stimulus payments must be made by Dec. 31. If people don’t receive the money by year’s end, they’ll have to wait to get the money until they file a 2020 federal return next year, because the stimulus relief payment is actually an advance credit.

There have been a lot of glitches in getting payments to the people who need the money most.

The IRS lost stimulus payment information for hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans who used an online “non-filers” tool that the agency developed to send payments to people with incomes typically below $12,200 for individuals and $24,400 for married couples. The IRS failed to capture the dependent information.

IRS officials initially told the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which has been tracking federal actions in response to the pandemic, that up to 450,000 low-income people did not receive the money they were due for their dependent children. During testimony to a Senate Finance Committee in June, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig revised the figure down to 365,000.

A GAO report found that from April 10 to May 17, some stimulus payment calculations did not include additional money for qualifying children, even though the recipients had correctly submitted information about their dependents to the IRS.

Others, who receive certain federal benefits such as Social Security disability, Supplemental Security Income or Veterans Affairs benefits, missed deadlines the IRS set for using the non-filers tool to register for the $500 payments.