Earlier this month Congressman Richard Neal, the Chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means, issued a release detailing the timeline for economic stimulus payments.
This is the best information we have seen regarding the plan for distribution of money to US citizens under the CARES Act, and we have listed some of the key takeaways below. You can click here to read the full letter.
Key Takeaways:
IRS began issuing payments the week of April 13th.
Individuals who have provided direct deposit information to the IRS, either on their 2018 or 2019 returns or through the “Get My Payment” link should see payments first.
Paper checks will be issued in reverse “adjusted gross income” order—starting with people with the lowest income first.
Paper checks for all others will be issued at a rate of about 5 million per week, which could take up to 20 weeks.
We have created the charts below to show you how the payments are being calculated, and to help figure out how much you should expect.
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Please note that payments are not being delayed if your 2019 taxes have yet to be filed. IRS will use information from 2018 returns when necessary for non-filers and regular taxpayers alike. We encourage you to access the Get My Payment tool on the IRS site to determine your actual payment amount, as well as to provide your most up-to-date bank and/or mailing information, if necessary.
We Remain Closed in Compliance with the Stay at Home Order
Our office will remain closed until statewide restrictions are lifted. For those of you whose returns are still in process, we are working to set up one day a week for you to sign and retrieve your documents.
If you prefer, we are more than happy to send your documents via US mail. Stay tuned for more information!
Economic impact payments from the Federal Government are arriving in bank accounts this week for some taxpayers who e-filed early and opted for direct deposit. These “stimulus checks” are separate from your regular tax refund, and are being handled entirely by IRS, so we do not have any information on individual payments for our clients.
While the $1200 per citizen and $500 per child amounts are what people have heard and are expecting, IRS has a formula for determining who gets how much. We can tell you, however, that it is our understanding the $500 per child payments only apply if the child is under 17 years of age.
Luckily, the IRS has set up online tools to check the status of your payment, and to determine if “non-filers” qualify for payment and/or need to submit an application. At the time we are sending this newsletter there is a placeholder for the “Where’s My Payment” tool on the irs.gov website, with a note indicating that it is scheduled to be available in “mid-April.” The non-filer application tool is currently active, though, and the home page includes a brief and helpful description of qualifications to see if you should submit an application. You can access both on the IRS.gov website through this link.
Tax day is one of those dates that you remember because it’s (almost) always the same, and it always seems to arrive sooner than you’d like. This year, though, it is one of the many constants that had to be changed due to the pandemic. Perhaps because the federal government and the state announced it separately, there has been some confusion about what is due when. Whatever the reason, we are here to reassure everyone that the deadline for filing both state and federal taxes this year is July 15, 2020.
We still recommend not waiting until the last minute, but the July 15th deadline gives taxpayers a grace period of three months to file this year, so there is no need to panic today. And remember: If you owe money on your taxes, you can file anytime now and still delay payment until July 15th.
