10 Million People Missing Out on Stimulus

A recent report estimates that 10 million eligible people have not received their stimulus payment. Many factors have contributed to the stimulus problem. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) conducted the report.

The Recovery Rebate Credit was part of the government's effort to provide stimulus to the economy during the pandemic.

Most people received their stimulus by check or direct deposit. However, debit cards were sent to millions of people from a third-party financial institution. People accidentally threw away those cards because they were mistaken for junk mail.

The TIGTA report stated that debit card policies and manually verifying the stimulus claims were an unnecessary burden on taxpayers. This delayed access to stimulus payments for many taxpayers.

If you missed getting your stimulus and didn't take the stimulus credit on your tax return, you can still get your stimulus by going to GetYourRefund.org.

TIGTA recommended that the IRS identify people who didn't get their stimulus. However, the IRS did not agree to take any actions to make sure the roughly 10 million potentially eligible people identified by TIGTA as of May 2021 get their stimulus payment.

TIGTA found that the IRS correctly calculated the stimulus credit on 99.3% of the 26.3 million tax returns filed. "Achieving a 99.3% accuracy rate was no small feat," wrote Kenneth Corbin, commissioner of the IRS's Wage and Investment Division.

Corbin said the second stimulus required the IRS to quickly change the programming to permit reconciliation of the second stimulus. The IRS processing systems were programmed and implemented with only a two-week delay to the opening of the filing system.

TIGTA said it sent out 12 alerts while conducting the review to notify the IRS about its concerns. The IRS implemented changes to address one of the alerts and agreed to act on four others.

The IRS didn't agree to review payments made in error totaling close to $598 million paid to ineligible individuals as of May 2021.

TIGTA made 22 recommendations to the IRS. The IRS agreed with 8 of TIGTA's recommendations.

The recommendations included taking actions to guarantee eligible people receive their payment. This included alerting people who have not filed a tax return or did not claim the stimulus payment of their eligibility.

With the sudden changes, it's not a surprise so many taxpayers had the wrong amounts on their tax returns.

If you missed your stimulus and didn't take the credit when you filed your return, don't miss your chance to take the stimulus.

David Zubler has an accounting degree and computer science degree with high distinction and has experience as an accounting manager and controller in manufacturing, and has owned his tax/consulting business since 1990.  David Zubler is the founder and president of Your Tax Care.  The company provides business and tax education to the public at its website, YourTaxCare.com.  David can also be contacted by email at zublerdavid@gmail.com.