IRS says all stimulus payments have been sent

The IRS said this week that it has issued all of the coronavirus relief checks that it is legally permitted to disburse and that people who haven’t received the full amount to which they are entitled can claim a credit on their 2020 tax returns.

Congress last year authorized two rounds of direct payments. The IRS said in a news release Tuesday that it sent out more than 160 million of the first-round payments, which were established by legislation enacted in March, and more than 147 million of the second-round payments, which were provided for by legislation enacted in December.

The IRS said it has now issued all of the payments from the first two rounds that it legally can based on the information it has on file, though some second-round payments may still be in the mail. Congress directed the IRS to make automatic payments of the second round of checks by Jan. 15.

The agency said that it last updated its “Get My Payment” web tool on Jan. 29 and will not make any additional updates on the portal for the first two round of payments.

The tax-filing season started last week. People who have not received the full amount of the payments for which they are eligible can claim the “recovery rebate credit” on their 2020 tax return. Those who have not received their full amounts include people who lost substantial income in 2020, people who welcomed new children in 2020 and families with mixed-citizenship status.

The IRS said that taxpayers will need to know the amounts of any payments they have already received in order to claim the recovery rebate credit. If people do not remember how much they have already received, they can view their amounts through the IRS’s online account system.