IRS Sends Missing Stimulus Checks for Some Dependents

By

John Waggoner

If you received your stimulus payment but not one for your dependent child, help may be on the way.

People who used the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Non-Filers tool before May 17 didn't get their $500 stimulus checks for their dependent children under age 17 because of an IRS programming

error. Direct deposit payments for those dependents went out on Aug. 5, according to the IRS, and paper checks were mailed Aug. 7. You can check the status of your payment using the IRS Get

My Payment tool.

The checks will be sent to your address of record (in other words, the address where the previous check was sent). If you received your stimulus payment by direct deposit, the dependent

payment will go into the same bank account.

If you used the Non-Filers tool on or after May 17, the day the glitch was fixed, your stimulus payment should have included the payment for your dependent child.

child?

According to the IRS, a dependent child is the son, daughter, stepchild, eligible foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister or a descendant of any of

them (for example, grandchild, niece or nephew). The child must have been under age 17 at the end of 2019 or be permanently or totally disabled. In addition, the child must have been claimed

as a dependent on the 2018 or 2019 tax return (or, in this case, have been entered in the IRS Non-Filers tool).

The child must also: