Press Releases

SPRINGFIELD, MA – Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) called for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to begin notifying non-filers eligible for economic impact payments (EIPs) immediately, rather than waiting until the end of the month. In his letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, Neal pointed out that individuals only have until October 15 to register on the IRS’s non-filer portal to receive an EIP, and any delay in sending out notifications could result in eligible Americans missing that deadline and not receiving the much-needed assistance until well into 2021.

“Recently, the IRS announced that it would begin sending 9 million letters around September 24 to notify individuals who have not filed a tax return that they may be eligible for an EIP,” wrote Chairman Neal. “With so many American families in financial distress, the IRS should have done this much sooner. For months, the IRS has had all the information it needs to contact these individuals yet chose not to do so. Further delay is inexcusable.” 

Today’s letter follows a July 31 letter the Chairman and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin regarding their concerns over racial disparities in the administration of the tax code as well as in the implementation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. In that letter, the members noted that the Administration’s distribution of EIPs was incomplete and had left behind the most economically vulnerable Americans, namely non-filers whose incomes are too low to trigger a tax filing obligation, including those experiencing homelessness. 

Chairman Neal reiterated his dismay in today’s letter to Commissioner Rettig: “Given that the IRS is using information it has had in its possession for months, and years in some cases, to identify and contact these individuals, it is inexplicable that the agency waited so long to reach out to this vulnerable population. Now, as the door is shutting, the IRS is sending a perfunctory letter by snail mail through the weakened U.S. Postal Service to educate individuals about emergency financial assistance to which they have been entitled since March. I fail to understand why the information used for this mailing was not used earlier to prepare EIP payments for these individuals.”

Neal concluded his letter with a request that the IRS extend the October 15 registration deadline for eligible non-filers.

Full text of the Chairman’s letter is available HERE.

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