This year, anyone who made under $69,000 does not need to pay to file they are eligible to file taxes for free through an IRS program called Free File. The result has been that millions of Americans have paid billions of dollars to corporations for tax preparation they should have been able to get free of charge. As ProPublica has documented, the IRS has long deferred to private industry instead of creating its own tax preparation and filing apparatus. The coronavirus rescue checks are yet another manifestation of a problem that has existed for decades. What’s more, customers who use it are signing away their personal data to the Silicon Valley firm, which the company can use to pitch third-party financial products to their customers. But the site, marketed as “free,” sometimes steers customers into products that cost money, in the same way ProPublica has documented over the past year. On April 4, the company rolled out a new “stimulus registration product” as part of its new Coronavirus Tax Center. Intuit has had a much more nimble approach. So far, the extent of the IRS’ public outreach has been the creation of what the agency calls “ e-posters,” to be circulated online, describing the program and letters written by the commissioner to several nonprofits encouraging them to get involved. The CARES Act, passed in late March, did not provide any mechanism to reach many of these low-income Americans. If they don’t, these people will never get the checks of $1,200 and up. They now must file a new form online notifying the IRS who they are, or the tax agency has to find them. Getting stimulus checks to them, an estimated 6 million households, is challenging. The CDC has more information on what to do if you are sick.Īnother group of Americans did not file taxes because they make so little money. Note: If you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19, such as difficulty breathing or bluish lips, get medical attention immediately. Help Us Continue Reporting on COVID-19Īre you a public health worker or front-line medical provider? Do you work for or with a government agency involved in the effort to protect the public? Have you or your family personally been affected? Show us what we should be covering or serve as an expert to make sure we’re on track. Some of these people have filed taxes, so they should eventually receive money but will have to wait weeks or even months for a check to come in the mail. Tens of millions of Americans have not provided the IRS with their banking account information, if they have one. This turns out to be far more complicated than it sounds. The job Congress gave to the IRS in its $2 trillion CARES Act is seemingly straightforward: Identify the Americans who qualify and send them money. As the IRS has struggled, for-profit tax preparation companies, notably Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, have stepped in with websites to help people get their checks.īut Intuit is not just acting as a conduit: It is also misleading unwary Americans by steering them to paid services that they could otherwise get for free. That’s because the rescue legislation left it to the IRS, an agency gutted by Congress, to organize the complex logistics of delivering the money to those entitled to it. But millions of Americans will have to wait months for that money - and millions more may never get the money at all. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.Ĭongress has approved billions of dollars of checks for Americans hard hit by the biggest round of layoffs in U.S. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.
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