INSIGHTi
Delivery of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs)
Updated July 7August 27, 2020
To mitigate the financial hardship many Americans are experiencing during the Coronavirus Disease
(COVID-19) pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES)
Act (P.L. 116-136). A critical element of the aid package is direct payments to certain individuals in 2020.
The payments are referred to as “recovery rebates” in Section 2201 of the act, but the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) calls them refers to them as “economic impact payments” (EIPs) in the notices it shares with the general
public.
information about the
payments it sends to the general public.
(For more information on these payments, see CRS Insight IN11282, COVID-19 and Direct Payments to
Individuals: Summary of the 2020 Recovery Rebates/Economic Impact Payments in the CARES Act (P.L.
116-136).)
This Insight presents a brief overview ofsummarizes the delivery of EIPs so far and identifies factors that might affect the
timing and accuracy of their deliveryissues that have delayed the delivery of
payments to certain low-income individuals.
Delivery of Payments
The IRS is administering the EIP program, with assistance from the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the
Fiscal Service, which is issuing the payments. In doing so, itthe IRS has drawn on its experience in administering
administering a similar payment program established by the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (ESA, P.L. 110-185).
According to figures from the IRS, most payments had been delivered by June 3, 2020.
110-185).
The CARES Act provided the IRS with $500.7 million to implement the program; the funds are available
for obligation until September 30, 2021. By contrast, Congress appropriated $270 million for the IRS to implement the
2008 stimulus payments.
EIPs have been distributed to three groups of taxpayers:
eligible individuals who filed a return in 2019 (or in 2018 if no return for 2019 is filed
before 2019 return is filed before
payments are disbursed);
eligible individuals who were not required to file a return for either year and who
received Social Security (SS) benefits, Railroad Retirement (RR) benefits, Supplemental
Security Income (SSI), or certain Veterans Administration (VA) benefits in 2019; and
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all other eligible individuals who filed no return for either year2018 and 2019 and received none of the
the benefits listed in the previous category; these individuals are often referred to as
nonfilers.
Taxpayers in the first group were automatically receivedissued a payment. Those who provided bank account
information to the IRS in 2019 or 20182018 or 2019 to receive a refund got theirwere issued a payment via direct deposit. Some
Some individuals who filed their 2018 or 2019 returnsreturn with the help of a tax return preparation firm may have
have experienced a delay in gettingreceiving their payment.
But taxpayersTaxpayers in the first group who did not provide bank account information for those years receivedwere sent a
check in the mail, unless they used an online application from the IRS called Get My Payment to provide
direct deposit information. Taxpayers had until May 13, 2020, to do so.
Taxpayers in the second group (i.e., recipients of Social Security benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits,
Supplemental Security Income [SSI], or certain Veterans Administration [VA] benefits in 2019) also
received a payment automaticallySS benefits, RR benefits, SSI, or certain VA benefits in
2019) also automatically were issued a payment. They did not have to file a return for 2018 or 2019 or
provide other
information to the IRS. But in order to receive a $500 payment for a qualifying child, recipients of Social
Security
of SS benefits, SSI, and certain VA benefits had to provide certain detailsinformation through an online tool for
nonfilers (Nonfilers: Enter Payment Info Here page at IRS.gov) by May 5, 2020, originally. The deadline
has been extended to September 30, 2020.
Taxpayers in the third group must register with the IRS to get a payment, since the IRS would otherwise
have no currentaccurate contact information. This group encompasses an estimated 12 million people who were
not required to file in 2018 and 2019 because their income was below the filing threshold for their filing
status. To expedite the registration process, nonfilers in this category are encouragedthe IRS has encouraged nonfilers to use the same
online tool
for nonfilers in the second category. The deadline for registering is October 15, 2020.
It took the IRS about 10 weeks to start distributing the 2008 ESA stimulus payments after enactment of
the ESA. By the end of 2008, the IRS had deliveredissued nearly 143 million payments worth a total of $107.3
billion.
By contrast, the IRS began delivering the first round of EIPs 15 days after enactment of the
CARES Act. By June 5
As of May 31, the IRS had delivered nearly 159issued 160.4 million payments totaling about $267worth $269 billion;
120 million payments (or
75%) were delivered via direct deposit, 35 million (or 22%) as paper checks,
and 3.7 million as prepaid
debit cards. (As a point of referenceWhen the EIP program began, the Ways and Means Committee
estimated at the outset of the EIP program estimated that between 150
million and 170 million taxpayers would
receive payments, and that the IRS would need to obtain
information from 90 million to 110 million of
them to deliver payments via direct deposit or a paper check.)taxpayers to issue payments to them.
Several glitches have marred the delivery of EIPs. Prepaid debit cards have been sent to persons not
expecting them who discarded the envelope containing them as junk mail. An plain, white envelope containing them, thinking it was junk mail. An
estimated 365,000 persons
have not received payments for dependent children, even though they had
provided the IRS with the
required information; the IRS has announced that it began distributing those
payments in early August. And many individuals have had difficulty getting their questions about missing or
or incorrect payments answered by the IRS.
Factors That May Affect the Delivery of EIPs
There are several factors that may have affected the timing and accuracy of the IRS’s distribution of EIPs.
One factor is the size of IRS’s workforce. It is 20% smaller today than it was when the IRS administered
the 2008 stimulus payments. With this reduced workforce, the IRS is processing 2019 tax returns (which
are due by July 15) while implementing the EIP program. Even allowing for an increase in overall
productivity between 2008 and today, the agency may find it difficult to deliver EIPs to eligible taxpayers
for whom it has no bank account information or a current mailing address.
Another factor is the current status of the IRS workforce. In mid-March, to protect employees and
taxpayers from contracting COVID-19, the agency closed its Taxpayer Assistance Centers and reduced
taxpayer phone service. Then on March 30, IRS managers ordered employees who could work remotely
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to do so immediately. It is unclear how teleworking has affected the EIP program. Although some
employees returned to their offices in late April, there has been concern that remaining critical work for
the program cannot be done in a timely manner by employees still working from home. To increase phone
assistance for taxpayers with questions about their EIP, the IRS announced on May 18 that 3,500 phone
operators had been recalled.
There is a concern that a shortage of IRS employees with a good working knowledge of COBOL—the
programming language for IRS’s core information systems since the early 1960s—might affect the
delivery of EIPs to certain taxpayers.
Yet another
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Another factor is the IRS’s seeming reliance on the internet to provide needed information and a
mechanism for low-income nonfilers to receive a payment. Most EIPs have been deliveredissued, and the IRS is
now focused on delivering them to nonfilers for whom the IRS has no current information. Conducting
outreach through the internet may not lead to the desired results, because many of these individuals may
be having trouble accessing the internet, owing to the pandemic. Places where they normally may get
access, such as public libraries, community centers, and volunteer taxpayer assistance centers, remain
closed in many communities. According to an estimate by the Pew Research Center, 46% of American
adults with household income below $30,000 do not own a computer. Nonfilers for 2018 and 2019 who
do not register with the IRS by October 15, 2020, may be able to claim an equivalent payment if they file
a tax return for 2020.
Author Information
Gary Guenther
Analyst in Public Finance
Disclaimer
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IN11393 · VERSION 67 · UPDATED