WASHINGTON — The IRS has announced that it will send 50,000 stimulus checks next month after they were wrongly withheld the first time around.
So who qualifies for the extra money and what do you need to do to get it WUSA9 has your answers.
Question: Why were the checks wrongly withheld?
Answer: Thousands of people’s portions of their Economic Impact Payment checks, or EIPs, were originally diverted in order to pay their spouse’s past-due child support, according to the IRS. The mistake happened in a rush for the IRS to get those checks out initially.
Q: Who will get these catch-up checks this time around?
A: These payments will be mailed as checks to any eligible spouse who submitted Form 8379 -- also known as the Injured Spouse Allocation form -- as well as their 2019 federal income tax return, or 2018 return in some cases.
Q: If you’re eligible, how can you get the check?
A: The spouses who are eligible won’t need to do anything to get the check, the IRS said. They’ll automatically issue the portion of the EIP that was applied to the other spouse's debt. People who qualify can expect to get that in early-to-mid September.
Q: What happens if you didn’t fill out that Form 83-79?
A: The IRS said that even if you didn’t submit a form, you still don’t need to take any action to get your check.
They plan to automatically issue those EIP portions at a later date.
Anyone can check the status of their payment by using the Get My Payment tool, available only on IRS.gov.