Economic Stimulus Payments

Purpose And Overview Of The Distribution

The purpose and overview of economic stimulus payments of which billions were reported to have been distributed. 

Economic Stimulus Payments

The treasury Department has reported that the government distributed electronically and via mail an estimated $4.9 billion payments.

 According to Treasury, these numbers were representative of the near completion of all direct deposits, with the continued mailing of paper checks. 

Economic Stimulus Payments - Improper Deposits

The IRS reported that in a few instances, taxpayers informed the agency that their stimulus payments were not deposited to the proper bank account. The IRS promptly worked with taxpayers on a case-by-case basis to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. 

Economic Stimulus Payments - Missing Child Payments

Approximately 350,000 taxpayers did not initially receive the child payment portion of their economic stimulus payment, despite qualifying for the payment. According to the IRS, these taxpayers did not check the proper box on their returns to trigger the $300 payment, or the tax preparation software they used failed to capture the proper information needed for issuing the child stimulus payments. The IRS indicated that it would send separate checks to cover the qualifying children payments. 

Economic Stimulus Payments - Married Couples

Married couples received up to a $1,200 stimulus payment, and qualifying individuals up to $600. Each qualifying child entitled to caretaker to an additional $300. Rebates begin to phase-out at $75,000 of adjusted gross income (AGI) for individuals and $150,000 of AGI for married couples filing jointly. The combined basic and child rebates phase-out at five percent of the amount exceeding these applicable AGI thresholds. 

For tax returns processed by the IRS by April 15, households received their payments according to the last two digits of the Social Security number on their tax return. On a joint return, the first number listed will determine when a stimulus payment will be sent. However, individuals who had e-file or tax preparation fees deducted from their refunds received paper checks. 

Warning About Scam Artists

Warning — Scam Artists were Contacting Taxpayers about the Stimulus Payments

The IRS was not e-mailing or calling taxpayers about their stimulus payment.  So if someone claiming to be from the IRS called or e-mailed you about the payments and asked you for a Social Security, bank account or credit card number or similar information, it was a scam. The scammers were trying to get your personal and financial information so they could possibly empty your bank account, run up charges on your credit card and more. Find out more — see IR-2008-11, IRS Warns of New E-Mail and Telephone Scams Using the IRS Name; Advance Payment Scams Starting. 

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