IRS Extends Deadline To Claim Virus Relief Child Payments

Beneficiaries of certain federal programs have until Nov. 21 to provide the Internal Revenue Service with information to receive $500 coronavirus relief payments for their qualifying children, the agency has said, extending its deadline to obtain the payments.

People receiving Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security income, Railroad Retirement benefits and Veterans Affairs Compensation and Pension benefits and who did not file a return in 2018 or 2019 can use an online IRS tool to obtain the $500 economic impact payments, the agency said in a statement on Friday. The IRS extended the deadline to 5 p.m. EDT on Nov. 21 after saying in August that federal beneficiaries must claim the benefits by mid-October.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act authorized $1,200 payments for individual taxpayers and $2,400 for couples filing jointly, with phaseouts at certain income thresholds. The law also provided supplemental payments of $500 per child to adults with qualifying children.

--Additional reporting by David van den Berg. Editing by Joyce Laskowski. 

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