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Undocumented workers not receiving stimulus checks
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to sweep across the country, immigrant communities are being hit especially hard.
FOX BUSINESS - More than 80 million Americans received the much-awaited stimulus check in their bank accounts this week, but if you weren’t among them, there may be a reason your aid is delayed.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Americans on Friday morning to make sure their direct deposit information has been shared with the Internal Revenue Service via the new “Get My Payment” tool, which allows people to provide their bank information in order to get the cash.
If Americans filed a 2019 or 2018 tax return, which will be used by the agency to calculate eligibility, but did not provide direct deposit information, the tool can be used to input the necessary information. You can also track the payment online through a separate portal set up this week by the IRS.
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There could be a number of reasons you may not have received your money yet: Even if you filed your 2018 or 2019 tax returns automatically, you must have also received a refund in those years via direct deposit to ensure your money arrives. If you owed money, the IRS will not use that bank account information.
If you did receive a tax return but it went to a temporary account set up by a tax return organization -- which allows customers to avoid paying anything out of pocket -- you will need to provide your deposit information to the IRS via the “Get My Payment” tool.
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Similarly, if you did not get your refund directly deposited in 2019 and filed a paper return for 2019, you may be waiting for a paper check with your stimulus money. You will also need to submit your direct deposit information to the IRS in order to receive the cash in your bank account.
Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients are expected to receive the payments automatically soon, the IRS said this week.
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Questions about stimulus payments
It’s April 15 -- typically Tax Day -- but that was delayed due to the coronavirus. Instead, this is the day stimulus checks began rolling out.
At the heart of the largest relief plan in recent memory is $1,200 checks for individuals who earn less than $75,000 annually, $2,400 for couples who earn less than $150,000 and $500 for every child. The payments are tapered for higher-earners and phase out completely for individuals who earn more than $99,000, or couples who earn more than $198,000.
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The cash is intended to blunt the financial pain for Americans caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought the economy grinding to a halt. In three weeks alone, 22 million Americans filed for unemployment, the Labor Department said Thursday. The record-shattering number is a stunning sign of the depth of the economic calamity inflicted by the virus outbreak.
The speed at which the money is distributed depends on people’s tax-filing method -- and whether the government has their banking information. Electronic payments can be disbursed quicker than cash checks, which must be printed and mailed separately.
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