To assist with COVID-19, the federal government gave Stimulus Checks to people totaling $931 billion. The IRS and Treasury had trouble getting payments to certain taxpayers, though.
We discovered that those who are not required to file tax returns, first-time filers, families with multiple immigrant statuses, and those who are homeless were among those most likely to have delays in obtaining these payments.
We advised Treasury and the IRS to target their outreach initiatives to inform such individuals of their eligibility for these payments. To relieve the financial strain brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic, the IRS and Treasury gave $931 billion in Stimulus Checks to people in 2020 and 2021. Some Americans who qualified for payments, nevertheless, never got them.
IRS Will Not Send More Stimulus Checks
We provided recommendations to improve Treasury and IRS outreach and communication efforts for the Earned Income Tax Credit and other related tax credits that the IRS administers that total billions of dollars.
In order to alleviate the financial strain brought on by the epidemic, the federal government paid Stimulus Checks to people totaling $931 billion between April 2020 and December 2021. Three waves of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) were allowed under the CARES Act, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and the ARPAt of 2021 (Public Laws 116-136, 116-260, and 117-2, respectively).
These EIPs were distributed to around 165 million Americans. The ARPA of 2021 also temporarily boosted the Child Tax Credit (CTC) levels and eligibility for additional households. About 84 percent of children in the US will benefit from early payments of half their total predicted CTC sent to eligible families each month from July through December 2021.
According to analyses of survey data by the Census Bureau and Federal Reserve, beneficiaries of EIPs and advance CTC payments experienced less financial hardship and food scarcity. Individuals received significantly more money from the pandemic-related rewards than from any other stimulus program in recent memory.
