US tax authorities have announced that special $1,400 payments are being made to 1 million taxpayers who did not claim under the 2021 recovery rebate scheme, in what could be the final installment of pandemic-era stimulus checks.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stated in an advisory that the disbursements were a “special step” following a review that revealed that many eligible taxpayers did not receive one or more Economic Impact Payments (EIP), also known as stimulus “stimi” payments.
During the pandemic, there were three rounds of EIP payments to US citizens, totaling $4,500, amounting to approximately $931 billion between April 2020 and December 2021, according to the US Treasury Department.
The payments are expected to total around $2.4 billion.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (Cares) Act of 2020 provided the most funding, $1.8 trillion, to combat both the healthcare crisis and the resulting economic fallout from the pandemic.
However, trillions more were spent through other government programs and treasury department initiatives.
According to the IRS, no action is required for eligible taxpayers to receive these payments, which will arrive this month or late January via direct deposit or check.
“The IRS continues to work hard to make improvements and help taxpayers,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “These payments are an example of our commitment to go the extra mile for taxpayers.”
The late stocking-stuffer payouts for approximately one million Americans come as federal authorities continue to investigate billions of dollars in Covid-19 relief that may have been obtained fraudulently.
According to an April report from the Justice Department’s Covid-19 fraud enforcement task force (CFETF), criminal charges were filed against more than 3,500 defendants for losses totaling more than $2 billion, with more than $1.4 billion seized or forfeited.
“Our work is not over,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. “We will continue our efforts to investigate and prosecute pandemic relief fraud and to recover the assets that have been stolen from American taxpayers.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco advocated for an extension of the statute of limitations “to allow prosecutors to recover hundreds of millions of dollars more in fraud proceeds, bring remaining offenders to justice, and disrupt criminal networks that continue to victimize our citizens.”
