A third government stimulus check, worth $1,400 per qualified taxpayer and approved by the ARP in 2021, may still be due to almost half a million Americans. According to new research by the Inspector General for Tax Administration at the Federal Treasury Department, roughly 645,000 potentially eligible people had not received a third stimulus payment by mid-September 2021. Some of those people got payments after September, but the report doesn’t specify how many have subsequently.
According to the Treasury Department, the total amount of unpaid stimulus payments is projected to be $1.6 billion. As part of the third wave of stimulus payments, the IRS has mailed checks to almost 175 million taxpayers.
Stimulus Checks Are Still Being Sent Out
Some people, on the other hand, may have fallen between the cracks, and the current tax season may offer them an opportunity to collect the outstanding stimulus check.
For example, some families that had a new child in 2021 may not have received the third stimulus payment. If the IRS had relied on the previous year’s tax return to establish eligibility, it would not have known about children born or adopted in 2021.
Furthermore, certain individuals whose incomes decreased in 2021 may be eligible for further stimulus checks. Because the payouts were tapered out at certain income levels — $160,000 for married couples, for example — anyone whose salaries fell below that level in 2021 may be eligible for further funds. According to the Treasury, Americans with an ITIN — Individual Taxpayer ID Number — who did not get a payment for a qualified dependent account for the bulk of those who did not receive the $1,400 stimulus check they were entitled to. According to the study, about 420,000 people in this group have been without pay since October.
