Faced with the economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, workers and small businesses needed more flexibility on the April 15 tax filing deadline. To help, President Trump pushed the tax filing deadline back to July 15th—allowing Americans to file later without penalties or interest.
Important: if you expect to receive a refund, you are still encouraged to file as soon as possible—the sooner you file, the sooner you can receive your refund.
For more on tax administration, click here.
Tax Refunds Come Quick—So File If You Want To Get Paid!
Nonetheless, for Americans who have filed their taxes for 2019, the amount of refunds being issued are roughly the same as they were last year.
This means that for families that rely on this tax refund each spring, they are still receiving it in a timely manner under our new tax code.
Economic Impact Payments Already On Their Way
Just 18 days ago, the CARES Act was signed into law. As part of this $2.2 trillion relief effort, workers are set to receive payments of up to $1,200 and $500 for each child. These payments are non-taxable, and won’t need to be repaid. And non-tax filers are eligible to receive a rebate check—for more information click here.
According to the IRS, 80 million taxpayers will be receiving payments this week. This means Americans could be receiving more than $96 billion this week, mere days after the law took effect.
The pace that these funds are hitting Americans’ bank accounts is beating records. In 2008, the last time the federal government issued funds like this, it took nearly 70 days for the first payment to hit a bank account. And in 2010, when President Obama implemented a smaller scale payroll tax holiday, it took 45 days to implement. Want to know more about how this works? Click here for the Ways and Means Republican explainer.
Republicans will continue working to ensure Americans and small businesses have the tools and resources they need so we can lock down this virus without permanently locking down our economy.
Want to read more on the fight against Coronavirus? Read our Coronavirus Bulletin here which contains our extensive FAQ about recent federal actions.