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Friday, Jun 26, 2020

Did the IRS send $1.4 billion of $193 billion in coronavirus relief payments to dead people?

Jiyul Kim, Gigafact Foundry
yes

Nearly $1.4 billion of the coronavirus relief payments enacted in March was sent to deceased individuals, according to the Treasury's Inspector General for Tax Administration. By April 30 the agency had disbursed a total of about $193 billion in total payments.

On June 25, the Government Accountability Office said that the Treasury and IRS "did not use the death records to stop payments to deceased individuals for the first three batches of payments." The agency initially determined under the program's rules that payments were authorized to anyone who filed a tax return for 2019, and the agency proceeded to disburse to its list of filers, alive or deceased.

The GAO report said the IRS "should consider cost-effective options for notifying ineligible recipients on how to return payments."

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