IRS expands outreach about Economic Impact Payments

The Internal Revenue Service announced Friday the availability of additional material for partner groups sharing information related to Economic Impact Payments, including a new toolkit in Spanish and a variety of other print and visual items.

Even with more than 130 million Economic Impact Payments delivered and millions more on the way, there are still people who might not realize they might qualify for a payment of $1,200 or more. To help reach people who don’t normally file a tax return, the IRS has embarked on a sweeping outreach effort to share information in multiple languages inside and outside the tax community.

“From the enactment of the CARES Act, the IRS has embarked on an unprecedented outreach effort to share information about Economic Impact Payments,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. “We want to reach every eligible person and encourage everyone to share this information with family and friends, and groups and businesses to send it to partners and clients. During these difficult times, each of you can make a difference by helping us help others.”

The IRS has placed a special emphasis on partnering with new organizations that work with groups focusing on veterans, the homeless, low-income taxpayers and non-English speaking audiences to share information about the payments. In all, the IRS has worked with thousands of partners across the country, reaching organizations representing hundreds of millions of taxpayers.

The IRS has more than 40 ready-to-use materials available, including e-posters and Twitter images that can be used on websites, social media, newsletters and other platforms and print materials, including tax tips, short, plain English summaries of EIP and “Ready to Use” articles that can be shared with family, friends, partners and clients in emails, newsletters and web sites.

The IRS also has a special partner toolkit now available in both Spanish and English. The toolkit offers a summary of various items related to Economic Impact Payments that partner groups can share.

In addition, the IRS has been working closely with partners in the tax community as the private sector worked to translate key Economic Impact Payments into more than two dozen languages to get key information to more people.

The IRS continues regularly sharing Economic Impact Payment information on social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

The IRS has been working with other federal agencies to share information, ranging from the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Fiscal Service to the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition to those groups, a number of federal agencies have additional information of interest to taxpayers, including the FDIC, which created a special page on its website that includes information for people describing where to find a bank that can open an account online and how to choose the right account, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has produced several videos related to Economic Impact Payments and other COVID-19 information.

The Treasury Department and the IRS on May 8 released state-by-state figures for Economic Impact Payments, with approximately 130 million individuals receiving payments worth more than $200 billion in the program’s first four weeks.

“We are working hard to continue delivering these payments to Americans who need them,” Rettig said. “The vast majority of payments have been delivered in record time, and millions more are on the way every week. We encourage people to visit IRS.gov for the latest information, FAQs and updates on the payments.”

In Nevada, the IRS has distributed 1,279,890 Economic Impact Payments totaling $2,131,071,471.