The IRS has provided tools for tax practitioners to use to reach out to taxpayers who do not normally file tax returns and are eligible to receive economic impact payments. The Service also announced that it will soon send economic impact payments to individuals whose payments were diverted to pay their spouse’s past-due child support.
Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, P.L. 116-136, eligible individuals can receive an economic impact payment (or recovery rebate) of up to $1,200 for individuals or $2,400 for married couples. Parents also receive $500 for each qualifying child. However, individuals who did not file a tax return for 2018 or 2019 may not have received a payment even if they were eligible.
To help practitioners reach out to these individuals to inform them about their eligibility for the payments, the IRS has created e-posters, ready-to-use articles, a toolkit, and other resources that can be downloaded and shared. The aim is to let eligible individuals know that they can go to the IRS’s Non-Filers tool until Oct. 15.
The IRS also announced that it will soon send economic impact payments to approximately 50,000 individuals whose portion of the payment was diverted to pay their spouse’s past-due child support. The IRS expects to send these payments by mid-September. The IRS will be mailing checks to any eligible spouse who filed Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, with his or her 2019 tax return, or in some cases, his or her 2018 return. Eligible spouses who did not file Form 8379 will also receive a payment, but the IRS cannot yet say when those payments will be issued.
— Alistair M. Nevius, J.D., (Alistair.Nevius@aicpa-cima.com) is the Tax Adviser‘s editor-in-chief.
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