IRS urges quick action to register children for $500 coronavirus payment by Wednesday

Recipients of Social Security benefits, as well as railroad retirement and veterans benefits recipients, will need to act fast.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department are urging recipients of Social Security benefits, as well as railroad retirement and veterans benefits recipients, to act quickly to register their children online with the IRS by noon Eastern Time on April 22 if they haven’t already filed a 2018 or 2019 tax return, so they can receive an extra $500 per child as part of their economic impact payment for the coronavirus.

There have been numerous snafus with the stimulus payments during the COVID-19 pandemic, which the IRS began directly depositing in taxpayers’ bank accounts a little over a week ago. Most taxpayers are entitled to an economic impact payment of at least $1,200 per individual, or $2,400 for married couples, plus an extra $500 for each qualifying child.

CORONAVIRUS IMPACT: ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
Kevin Wack
July 10, 2020 12:15 PM

A subprime-related settlement between the government and Deutsche Bank provided meaningful benefits to some U.S. consumers in need, according to a new report. But the author acknowledged that those gains could prove illusory for some consumers given the coronavirus crisis.

5 Min Read
Cathy_Lanning.jpg

Cathy Lanning serves as Senior Vice President for the Property & Casualty Marketing organization. In this role, she is responsible for the development and execution of integrated marketing plans for personal and commercial insurance products. Together with her team, she builds the brand and the Nationwide business leveraging data-driven direct marketing, partnerships, digital media, social media, cooperative agency marketing and lead generation strategies.

Most recently, Cathy led Strategic Partnerships where she established a large partnership portfolio with a data driven relationship-based selling approach. Together with partners such as alumni associations, cause organizations and sports organizations, Nationwide was able to understand the exact needs of a household and bring the right solutions at the right time to meet their protection needs. Under her leadership, the business unit grew by over 100% in five years.

Cathy joined Nationwide in 2007 as part of the leadership team that launched Nationwide Bank. Throughout her tenure at the company, she has held roles that require innovation, vision and team building. This includes establishing new digital marketing tools for agents, launching new products in the market, and establishing the Marketing Analytics organization. The Marketing Analytics organization delivered the first-generation marketing mix models, comprehensive digital analytics, and forecasting models, all of which helped Nationwide understand marketing effectiveness across channels and identified investment optimization pathways. The insights served the business lines across the company and opened new horizons for efficient growth and retention.

She has broad experience in brand management, analytics, partnership development, direct marketing, distribution marketing, innovation, product development and strategic planning. Prior to joining Nationwide, Cathy was the Brand Manager at The Scotts Company and Product Manager at WorldCom focused on Virtual Private Networks.

Cathy is a proud Ohio State University alumnus, holding a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing) and Masters in Business Administration. She is also a graduate from the Northwestern Kellogg Senior Women in Leadership program.

Outside of work, Cathy is a passionate advocate for education and community learning programs. To live this mission, Cathy serves on the board of The Ohio State University Alumni Association, The Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland and The Wellington School.

shelley temple nationwide

Shelley Brazeau Temple serves as President of Nationwide P&C Personal Lines. In this role, Shelley is responsible for all aspects of the Personal Lines Profit and Loss (P&L) segment including product, underwriting, sales and distribution, claims and service.

She most recently served as Nationwide P&C Senior Vice President and Chief Claims and Operations Officer. Prior to that, she served as Senior Vice President of Member Solutions, leading the company’s insurance servicing and billing operations and direct phone sales organization.

Other leadership positions she has held are:

  • Regional Vice President of Nationwide’s South Central Operations, responsible for sales, pricing, underwriting and product in a six-state geography, and managing a more than $660 million in sales revenue through exclusive agents and direct sales.
  • VP of Strategy and Operational Effectiveness for Customer Service and Direct Sales of Nationwide, developing and executing an innovative contact center strategy.
  • VP of Personal Lines Service Operations, responsible for personal lines service and processing center operations.

Shelley began her career at Nationwide as a Claims associate 27 years ago. Her increased responsibilities in leadership positions throughout the years also led her to work with internal audits, product and agency sales.
Shelley holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University and the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriting (CPCU) designation. She has served on several non-profit boards, including Ronald McDonald Children's Charities and the American Lung Association of the Midland States with participation in development, audit/finance and executive committees.

However, many taxpayers have complained that the payments have been going into the wrong bank accounts or they are getting frustrating messages from the IRS website saying the payments aren’t available (see story). For some taxpayers, the payments went into the temporary bank accounts set up by tax prep chains and tax software companies for their past years' tax returns and are no longer accessible. For others, banks and debt collectors have been seizing the stimulus payments for old debts, overdrawn accounts, overdraft fees and delinquent loans. In some cases, taxpayers haven’t been receiving the extra $500 per child. The IRS and the Treasury are hoping to solve at least that part of the puzzle.

They want Social Security, railroad retirement and veterans benefit recipients who have qualifying children and didn’t file a 2018 or 2019 tax return to visit the IRS Non-Filers tool by noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 22, and input basic information to receive the $500 per eligible child added to their automatic $1,200 economic impact payment.

“Social Security recipients and other federal benefit recipients will get their $1,200 automatically, but if they have dependents and did not file in 2018 or 2019, they need to use the IRS Non-Filers tool as soon as possible to input information to get their $500 per child,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement Monday. “If the IRS does not receive this essential information by Wednesday, their payment will be $1,200 and the $500 per child will be paid to them with a return filing for tax year 2020.”

That means taxpayers would have to wait until next year when they file their 2020 tax return to receive their $500 per child stimulus payment if they don't register their children as dependents within the tight timeframe.

Advertisement

Those receiving federal benefits – including Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits (SSDI), Railroad Retirement benefits, or Veterans Administration benefits – who have qualifying children and who weren’t required file a tax return in 2018 or 2019 should visit IRS.gov and click on the “Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info Here” button. The site will ask for basic information to confirm eligibility, calculate and send the economic impact payments:

· Full names and Social Security numbers, including for spouse and dependents

· Mailing address

· Bank account type, account and routing numbers (leave blank if you receive your benefits through Direct Express)

By inputting this information, taxpayers have a better chance of receiving the $500 per dependent child payment automatically in addition to their $1,200 individual payment. Otherwise, their payment at this time will be $1,200. By law, the additional $500 per eligible child amount would be paid in association with a return filing for tax year 2020.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients will have until a later date to provide their information in the IRS Non-Filers tool.

Separately on Monday, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2020-18, which provides two tax return filing procedures for individuals who are eligible for the economic impact payment under the CARES Act, but aren’t otherwise required to file 2019 federal income tax returns. The first is a simplified procedure for eligible people who voluntarily want to file a tax return only to receive allowed economic impact payments. They can use the Non-Filers tool to submit information to the IRS to receive their allowed economic impact payment much more quickly than if they filed a paper return. The second procedure accommodates zero AGI electronic filers who use tax return preparation software or otherwise need to provide more detail in filing state or local tax returns than that allowed by the simplified procedure.

Federal income tax returns filed in accordance with these procedures should be filed as soon as possible but no later than Oct. 15, 2020, to ensure the IRS will have enough time to process all returns and make all resulting economic impact payments before Dec. 31, 2020, as required by the CARES Act. The Get My Payment tool provides the most up-to-date information regarding the status of an eligible individual’s economic impact payment.

irs-podium.jpg
The seal of the Internal Revenue Service hangs on a podium during an IRS Criminal Investigation 100th year anniversary event at the IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg