IRS extends time for $500 per child stimulus payments

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relied on information from taxpayers’ 2018 and 2019 tax returns, but since in many cases the information was missing, out of date or incomplete, the IRS set up a portal where taxpayers could register their information.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.

CORONAVIRUS IMPACT: ADDITIONAL COVERAGE

Carla McCall

Carla McCall, CPA, CGMA, is managing partner of AAFCPAs, a 240-person CPA and consulting firm based in New England. She was named one of 2020’s "Most Powerful Women in the Accounting Profession" by the American Institute of CPAs, and was also honored as part of Accounting Today’s Managing Partner Elite List.

Jared Kaplan

Patrick Morrell

Patrick Morrell is the cofounder and chief revenue officer at Anduin, an AI-based billing platform. A veteran sales and marketing leader and technology company founder, he began his career in sales at CEB (now Gartner). He then joined Three Ships, where he led content development and later business development, and then joined Skookum (now Method) where he led inside sales and strategic partnerships as the company scaled (later acquired by GlobalLogic). Sealed Air Corporation then recruited him to build and manage the enterprise's first inside sales team and manage a nine-figure portfolio of commodity products. Morrell then founded and eventually sold a direct-to-consumer ecommerce business, and then cofounded Digitize.AI, a fintech company focused on the health care industry, where he ran sales and marketing. After exiting Digitize.AI (acquired by Waystar), he cofounded Anduin. An avid runner, reader, and basketball fan, he lives in North Carolina with his wife Clay and two children.

Previous PageNext Page

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.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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.