The action comes after President Joseph Biden signed the Democrats’ coronavirus stimulus plan, which has authorized a third round of stimulus payments to millions of Americans since the pandemic began.
“While the tax season is in full swing, IRS officials have worked around the clock to quickly deliver aid to millions of Americans struggling to cope with this historic pandemic,” said IRS commissioner Charles Rettig in a statement.
In a call to reporters, officials said they still do not have many statistics on payments, such as how many are already leaving.
The government has gotten better at distributing stimulus checks, with the last round approved by Congress in December coming out much faster than the first round approved early last year.
Payouts will generally be higher than in previous rounds, although slightly less people receive them.
They are generally reserved for individuals who earn less than $ 75,000, and couples twice as much, with $ 1,400 going to each person, including all dependents claimed in a statement. A family of four, for example, will receive $ 5,600.
Legislators have somewhat restricted the criteria for receiving them, so that some people who have received previous payments may not qualify for this one. Eligibility decreases more quickly as income increases than in previous rounds, so couples who earn more than $ 160,000 and singles who earn more than $ 80,000 do not receive payments.
Eligibility will generally be based on what people report on their 2020 tax returns, if they have already been processed by the IRS. If not, the agency will look at people’s returns in 2019 or, in the case of non-architects, for information they previously provided to the department to receive previous rounds of stimulus checks.
As of Monday, people can check the status of their payments on the IRS website, using the “Get My Payment” tool.