The Internal Revenue Service is giving taxpayers more time until Nov. 21 to register their dependents for the $500 per child Economic Impact Payments provided under the CARES Act.
The IRS said Monday that it’s extending the time to give people who were unable to provide their information earlier. Under the CARES Act that was passed by Congress in March in response to the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic, the IRS sent out $1,200 to each taxpayer, plus an additional $500 per child. It originally relied on information from taxpayers’ 2018 and 2019 tax returns, but since in many cases the information was missing, out of date or incomplete, the IRS set up a portal where taxpayers could register their information.
An estimated 9 million people haven't yet received an Economic Impact Payment. The IRS needs to send out the stimulus by the end of the year. It is extending the timeline for registering until 3:00 p.m. ET on Nov 21. The deadline had been Sept. 30 until the latest extension.
Paul B. W. Miller, Ph.D., CPA (ret.), is emeritus professor of accounting at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs. The author of more than 15 books on accounting, including "The FASB: the People, the Process, and the Politics," he collaborated with Ed Ketz and Paul Bahnson in writing more than 400 "Spirit of Accounting" columns for Accounting Today.
Paul R. Bahnson is a professor at Boise State University. His views are not necessarily those of his institution or Accounting Today.
Butler, MS, MCHES, is the senior wellness program management consultant at SelectHealth. His career in healthcare and health promotion spans over four decades, including 17 years of hospital-based experience at Intermountain Healthcare's LDS Hospital and 24 years working with Intermountain Healthcare’s SelectHealth. Butler was manager of health promotion services at SelectHealth from 1992-2002 and pioneered initiatives to develop and implement health promotion and disease management programs that were integrated with SelectHealth insurance products. He has a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education and earned his master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling psychology from the University of Utah. He is also a Master Certified Health Education Specialist.
Following recent IRS programming updates, anyone who registers using the Non-Filers: Enter Info Here before the 3 p.m. Eastern Nov. 21 extended due date will receive an Economic Impact Payment, if they’re eligible. That includes federal beneficiaries who already received an EIP but didn’t receive a supplemental $500 payment for qualifying children.
The additional time will enable them to enter the information on their qualifying children using the Non-Filers tool on IRS.gov.
Those who are eligible to provide this information include people with qualifying children who receive Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Railroad Retirement benefits and Veterans Affairs Compensation and Pension (C&P) benefits and did not file a tax return in 2018 or 2019.
The IRS is also encouraging anybody who didn’t have a requirement to file a tax return in 2018 or 2019 to register for an Economic Impact Payment by using the Non-Filers tool before the Nov. 21 deadline. The IRS originally didn’t have information on many of these taxpayers, so it was unable to send them the initial round of stimulus payments.
The IRS is encouraging people to choose direct deposit to receive their payments, as it will speed up processing when using the Non-Filers tool. Those who don’t choose this option will get a check in the mail instead. Starting two weeks after they register, people can track the status of their stimulus payments using the Get My Payment tool, accessible from IRS.gov.
