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Bills Aim to Include Non-Child Dependents in Relief Payments

Posted on Apr. 7, 2020

College students and elderly family members would be counted toward the amount of money families receive from economic impact payments under bills expected to be introduced in the House and Senate.

Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136), taxpayers will receive $500 for each dependent they claim on their tax returns who meets the definition of a child under the child tax credit.

No payments will be provided for non-child dependents over the age of 16.

Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., and Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., plan to introduce the All Dependent Children Count Act and the All Dependents Count Act of 2020 in the House and Senate, respectively, which would amend the CARES Act to provide $500 to dependents rather than qualifying children, as the law currently states.

“It’s deeply unfair . . . that no credit is available for dependents 17 and older, including older children with disabilities and college students,” Smith said in an April 2 statement. “My legislative fix will right this wrong and —  more importantly — offer some additional relief to families.”

Extend Automatic Payments

As Treasury works to implement the economic impact payment provision, lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to send stimulus payments to those who receive benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program without requiring them to file a tax return.

Three April 3 letters — one signed by three representatives, including House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard E. Neal, D-Mass.; one signed by 24 Ways and Means Committee Democrats; and one signed by 45 senators, including Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore. — asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to extend automatic payments beyond Social Security beneficiaries.

“Requiring SSI and VA recipients to file tax returns in order to get the payments would create artificial and needless bureaucratic hurdles for millions of the most vulnerable individuals in our society, and would put them at risk of experiencing a delay or a complete inability to receive their payments,” the three representatives said in their letter.

The lawmakers argue that the government already has the necessary data from the Social Security Administration and the VA to automatically send payments to these individuals.

Treasury should not require people with disabilities and low-income veterans and seniors to file a form to receive stimulus payments when the federal government already has the information it needs,” the senators said.

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