Most recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and/or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) are eligible for the COVID-19 stimulus payment. In fact, the IRS will be providing most U.S. citizens with $1,200 stimulus payments (also called economic impact payments), following Congress’s passage of the CARES Act (the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act).
You are eligible for a stimulus check as long as you have a Social Security number (a taxpayer ID number doesn’t count) and you are not claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return. If you have children, you will get an extra $500 for each child who is under age 17, as long as the child lives with you for more than half the year.
What If I Don’t File a Tax Return?
If you don’t file a tax return because your income is low and/or your only income is SSI or SSDI or veterans benefits, you are still eligible for the COVID-19 stimulus payment. If you received SSDI, SSI, or veterans compensation or pension in 2019, and you don’t have children under 17, you don’t have to do anything; the government will send you your check automatically. You don’t need to file a “simple tax return” as the IRS had initially said. But if you just started to receive SSDI or SSI this year, or you have minor children, you may have to file the simple tax return.
The IRS has partnered with two free websites for non-filers to enter their personal information into a simple tax return to get the stimulus payment: Free File Fillable Forms and TurboTax. When you go to Free File’s non-filer page or TurboTax’s stimulus registration page, you’ll be asked to create an account. Then you’ll provide your Social Security number, driver’s license number, filing status, and banking information (if you want direct deposit). It’s really not a tax return at all, as you don’t need to enter income information.
If you submit this non-filer information (or a tax return) this year, you’ll get the stimulus payment this year. If you wait until 2021, you will get the stimulus money in 2021 (if you file a tax return for the 2020 tax year).
Who should use the non-filer page to file a simple tax return? Those who don’t normally file tax returns, and possibly those who started to receive SSDI or SSI in 2020. The IRS initially said that Social Security recipients who first started to receive benefits in 2020 have to submit non-filer information to the IRS; the agency may clarify this soon. Also, while individuals who receive Social Security disability, SSI, or veterans benefits will automatically get the stimulus money, they will not get $500 for each child under 17 unless they submit non-filer information to the IRS (or they have filed a tax return in 2018 or 2019).
Ben Winter, P.A. focuses its practice in the areas of Social Security Disability and Workers Compensation in St Petersburg, Florida. For more information, go to our web site www.benwinterlaw.com or call (727) 822-0100.