IRS automates payments for recipients of some benefits

The Internal Revenue Service announced this month that those who receive benefits from Supplemental Security Income and Veterans Affairs will receive automatic Economic Impact Payments.

Veterans and their beneficiaries who receive Compensation and Pension benefit payments from VA and SSI recipients will receive a $1,200 Economic Impact Payment with no further action needed on their part. The IRS projects payments for SSI recipients will go out no later than early May, while the timing for VA beneficiaries is still being determined.

Moving SSI recipients into the automatic payment category follows weeks of extensive cooperative work between SSA, Treasury, IRS as well as the Bureau of Fiscal Services. Those groups working with the VA moved VA recipients into the automatic payment category.

“Since SSI recipients typically aren’t required to file tax returns, the IRS had to work extensively with these other government agencies to determine a way to quickly and accurately deliver Economic Impact Payments to this group,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. “Additional programming work remains, but this step simplifies the process for VA recipients to quickly and easily receive these $1,200 payments automatically.”

No action needed by most taxpayers.

The law provides eligible taxpayers with qualifying children under age 17 to receive an extra $500. For those who are not required to file tax returns and have children who qualify, an extra step is needed to add $500 per child onto their automatic payment of $1,200.

For those who receive Social Security retirement or disability benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits or SSI and have a qualifying child, they can register by visiting a special tool available only on IRS.gov and provide their information in the Non-Filers section. By quickly taking steps to enter information on the IRS website about them and their qualifying children, they can receive the $500 per dependent child payment in addition to their $1,200 individual payment.

If beneficiaries in these groups do not provide their information to the IRS soon, they will have to wait until later to receive their $500 per qualifying child.