Senator Hassan Pushes IRS Commissioner to Send Families Promised COVID-19 Stimulus Payments for Children as Quickly as Possible
The Senator Also Presses the Commissioner on Delays of Critical Financial Assistance to Small Businesses and Non-Profits
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan today pushed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig on the Agency’s efforts to ensure that families who automatically received their COVID-19 stimulus payments will not need to wait until next year to receive the additional $500 payment per dependent child that they were promised.
To watch the Senator’s questioning, click here.
The Senator’s questioning during the Senate Finance Committee hearing follows up on her outreach to the Treasury Department and IRS – including a letter sent today – regarding short deadlines that required Social Security and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries to provide information to the IRS in order to receive their stimulus payments for dependents before next year.
Earlier in the hearing, Commissioner Rettig told Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that the IRS is looking into ways to provide families their promised $500 stimulus payments prior to 2021.
Senator Hassan went on to press the Commissioner on a timeline for getting these payments to families who did not submit information on their dependents within IRS’s short deadlines: “We have constituents who need these dollars, they're entitled to them, they're trying to get them, they've been trying to do their best. So when can you give us a timeline of what the windows look like for them and how they might get those $500 payments?"
Commissioner Rettig responded that IRS will get back to the Senator on their plan.
"I appreciate how hard everyone was working -- people just need these dollars," Senator Hassan said.
Senator Hassan went on to ask Commissioner Rettig about reported delays for employers who have requested advanced payments of new tax credits to help them stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis. During Senator Hassan’s questioning, the Commissioner did not reveal how long it was taking for the IRS to deliver these advanced payments, saying only that about 1/3 of these requests have been processed.
Later in hearing, the Commissioner admitted that it was taking the IRS four to six weeks to deliver these badly needed payments to businesses, which is weeks longer than the two weeks that the IRS has promised employers.
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