Treasury Dept.: 30K taxpayers still waiting for $600 COVID-19 aid checks
An estimated 30,525 taxpayers have not received the disbursement of the $600 financial stimulus, reportedly due to errors in their bank information, Treasury Department officials said.
“They must have received a message, either by email or through the platform, indicating a rejection [of the deposit] by the bank. They have to update their bank information to complete the deposit,” said Roxanna Santiago-Ortiz, deputy secretary of the agency’s Internal Revenue division.
During a live transmission on Facebook, Treasury officials said they deposited the $600 stipend associated with the most recent federal COVID-19 pandemic assistance payment into the accounts of more than 1.7 million Puerto Rico taxpayers.
“In total, to this date, Treasury has disbursed $1.5 billion when combining payments of the $1,200 and $600 of economic stimulus,” said Angel Pantoja-Rodríguez, deputy secretary of finance at the Treasury Department.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Francisco Parés-Alicea said the electronic filing of returns for tax year 2020 will begin Feb. 24, with a deadline of April 15th. The filing date will stay the same unless Congress approves another round of financial assistance, “which would be a factor that would lead us to evaluate the possibility of postponing the date,” he said.
He said that 44,000 people who received the $1,200 check last year, based on their 2018 tax return, have not received the second round of assistance.
“That group has not received the $600 check because they did not file the 2019 return. In this final stage of aid distribution, the recommendation is to file the 2020 return and claim it as a refundable credit,” he said.
“The 2020 Income Tax form contains Schedule B3, where people can indicate the payments they did not receive, those they received, but were incomplete, and changes in family composition, among others, that will allow them to receive the money,” he added.
3K businesses apply for federal aid
In related news, Treasury officials said the agency has received 3,018 requests for aid from the federal government’s Business Interruption Grant program from local companies. If qualified, merchants could receive from $5,000 to $15,000 in aid.
Pantoja-Rodríguez said the agency will begin processing the applications this week and could start the disbursement this week as well.
