Hundreds of thousands of dollars in coronavirus relief payments have been sent to people behind bars across the U.S., and the IRS wants the money back. The federal tax agency is asking state officials to help claw back the cash it says was mistakenly sent.
FILE - In this April 23, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump's name is seen on a stimulus check issued by the IRS to help combat the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, in San Antonio. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in coronavirus relief payments have been sent to people behind bars across the United States, and now the IRS is asking state officials to help claw back the cash that the federal tax agency says was mistakenly sent.
Tax attorney Kelly Erb, who’s written about the issue on her website, says there’s no legal basis for asking for the checks back. The IRS doesn’t yet have numbers on how many payments went to prisoners, Smith said. But initial data from some states suggest the numbers are huge: The Kansas Department of Correction alone intercepted more than $200,000 in checks by early June. Idaho and Montana combined had seized over $90,000.
The IRS seems to have decided by itself to pull back the payments approved by Congress, said Wanda Bertram, a spokeswoman for the Prison Policy Initiative, a think tank focusing on the harm of mass incarceration. She says prison officials are accustomed to intercepting tax documents to screen for potential scams, priming them to follow this request.
Intercepting relief checks may also have a disproportionate impact on Black and Hispanic inmates, who are incarcerated at a higher rate than white Americans. Black people are imprisoned at roughly twice the rate of Hispanic residents, and more than five times the rate of whites as of last year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Here are some red flags that could grab the attention of IRSThe IRS may be auditing fewer returns than it once did, yet there is still a risk of hearing from the taxman for variety of reasons.
Read more »
IRS May Consider Delaying Tax Filing Deadline Again, Mnuchin SaysThe IRS may consider delaying the tax filing deadline again, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says
Read more »
Bars, Strip Clubs and Churches: U.S. Virus Outbreaks Enter Unwieldy PhasePITTSBURGH -- After months of lockdown in which outbreaks of the coronavirus often centered in nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants, the nation is entering a new and uncertain phase of the pandemic. New COVID-19 clusters have been found in a Pentecostal church in Oregon, a strip club in Wisconsin
Read more »
E.U. may block travelers from America as U.S. struggles to contain virusThe E.U. could block incoming travelers from the U.S. even after it partially reopens its borders because the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. is still too high, two E.U. diplomats say.
Read more »
Stock futures fall as U.S. states rush to contain virus flare-upsU.S. stock index futures dropped on Wednesday as investors shunned risky bets with many U.S. states scrambling to fight a spike in coronavirus infections.
Read more »