- Right up until the Senate left town for its traditional August recess, it seemed like most Americans were poised to get a new stimulus check to counter some of the ongoing pain of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Republican leaders including President Trump himself promised the checks were coming soon. Alas, though, no agreement has been reached yet on the passage of a new coronavirus relief bill.
- However, some Americans will be getting a small stimulus check starting this month, regardless.
The US Senate decided to head out for its annual August recess a few days ago, having made no progress on the passage of a bill that the body was racing to try and finish before vacation-time. If you’ve been following along, that bill was the HEALS Act, a new coronavirus relief package that was filled with much needed-stimulus elements like funding for most Americans to get a new stimulus check. What should have been an easy excuse for both major parties to come together, though, devolved into the typical gridlock where both sides talk past each other, nothing gets done, and, in this case, millions of Americans were left watching their representatives head out for vacation without having approved the second round of stimulus checks that everybody assumed would be on the way soon.
Maybe Congress will take all this up again when the Senators return, and maybe they won’t. However, one thing that’s been overshadowed by the stimulus-related news from recent days is the fact that, believe it or not, some of you will actually get a (small) new stimulus check starting this month, never mind the fate of the HEALS Act.
It’s because as part of the first coronavirus stimulus bill that Congress passed way back at the end of March, there was funding included in it to support the first wave of stimulus checks. When you got that check, it was supposed to have included a little extra money, if you have children — $500 for each eligible child under the age of 17.
Some Americans did not receive that money for their children, and checks to cover that missing amount are what the IRS has said are being sent out over the next couple of months.
According to the IRS, these “catch-up payments,” as the tax agency refers to the money that you were supposed to have already gotten, will be issued by mid-October.
“IRS employees have been working non-stop to deliver more than 160 million Economic Impact Payments in record time,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said about the new checks. “We have coordinated outreach efforts with thousands of community-based organizations and have provided materials in more than two dozen languages. Given the extremely high demand for EIP assistance, we have continued to prioritize and increase resource allocations to eligible individuals, including those who may be waiting on some portion of their payment. To help with this, we are allocating additional IRS resources to ensure eligible recipients receive their full payments during this challenging time.”
Here’s what you need to know about how to get the catch-up payment:
The tax agency explains on its website that it’s reopening the registration period for people who didn’t get their $500-per-child payments earlier this year.
The IRS said you can use the IRS.gov Non-Filers tool through September 30 to enter the necessary information on qualifying children in order to receive the supplemental $500 payments.