The Internal Revenue Service plans to send approximately 50,000 “catch-up” economic impact payments to people whose portion of the stimulus payment was diverted by the federal government to pay their spouse’s past-due child support.
The catch-up payments are expected to be sent in early to mid-September. They will be mailed as checks to any eligible spouse who filed a
Under the CARES Act, the IRS deposited or mailed stimulus payments known as economic impact payments of $1,200 to eligible taxpayers, along with an extra $500 per child. However, in some cases the IRS subtracted money from the payments for those who owed child support to their former spouses. The IRS plans to send the money to 50,000 individuals who were owed child support.
The IRS noted that it’s aware that some individuals did not file a Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation, and thus didn’t receive their part of the EIP for the same reason. They also don’t need to take any further action and don’t need to file a Form 8379. The IRS doesn’t yet have a timeframe but plans to automatically issue the part of the EIP that was applied to the other spouse’s debt at a later time.
Affected taxpayers can check the status of their EIP by using the
For more information, see the Receiving My Payment section of the Frequently Asked Questions in the
