A SECOND STIMULUS CHECK IS LIKELY

A second stimulus check is likely. The initial rollout of stimulus money resulted in a number of glitches, including the payment sent to dead people and wealthy foreign nationals not living in the U.S. Although the IRS has worked out a lot of kinks, many people still haven’t received a check, direct deposit or debit card. “My $1200 stimulus payment was automatically credited in early May to the same account as are my disability payments,” one person stated. “We have been awaiting receipt of a check for my wife’s stimulus payment but have yet to receive it. I called IRS in early July and conveyed our situation. The agent said my wife’s payment might have been delayed due to the late filing of 2018 taxes, but this made no sense, as I had received my payment.” A second stimulus check is likely.

Willard McGruder is raising two young grandsons, 2 and 7, on the $1400 Social Security Disability Insurance payment he receives each month. Although McGruder received his $1200 stimulus payment, it didn’t include the $500 per dependent child under 17 promised in the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act that passed in late March. McGruder is now one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the Treasury Department and the IRS. The legal action stems from the decision by the IRS that McGruder and many other federal beneficiaries will probably have to wait until next year to get the extra $500 because they missed a deadline to let the agency know they had qualifying dependent children. Except the fault wasn’t theirs.

The agency created a special online non-filers too for people who don’t have to file a tax return. The IRS issued a special alert on April 20 on its website giving beneficiaries about 48 hours to claim their $500 payments. Those who filed to use the non-filers tool during this hsort window would have to wait until 2021 to get the money.