IRS Processing More $500 Child Stimulus Payments After Criticism

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The Internal Revenue Service is sending $500 payments to the children of some stimulus relief recipients who hadn‘t gotten that part of the aid package after lawmakers complained that the agency wasn’t moving fast enough.

“IRS will issue $500 per qualifying child to eligible individuals who used the Non-Filers tool before May 17, 2020, and claimed at least one qualifying child,” the agency said in a notice posted to its website on Wednesday. “These users did not receive the qualifying child portion of the Economic Impact Payment (EIP) because of an error that was corrected.”

The payments will be delivered in the same way -- either direct deposit or mail -- that people got their earlier payments. Direct deposits will be processed Wednesday. Mailed checks and debit cards will be sent on Friday.

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and Senator Ron Wyden, the Finance Committee‘s top Democrat, wrote a letter to the IRS in July saying that nearly 500,000 people who aren’t required to file tax returns hadn‘t received payments for their children even though they’d registered dependents with the agency. The lawmakers urged the IRS to find a way to send the money quickly.

The CARES Act passed in March included $1,200 payments for adults earning up to $75,000 or couples earning $150,000, plus an additional $500 per child under age 17. The payments phased down for individuals earning up to $99,000 or $198,000 for couples.

Congress and the Trump administration are discussing another stimulus package that might include another round of payments. Both Democrats and Republicans have said they want to expand the payments to children to include more dependents, including college students and the elderly.