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This fact brief was originally published as an experiment to test the concepts behind fact briefs.

Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of useful information in fact briefs like this one, not all of them reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF

Did the IRS send $1.4 billion of $193 billion in coronavirus relief payments to dead people?

Friday, June 26, 2020

By Jiyul Kim

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YES

Nearly $1.4 billion of the coronavirus relief payments enacted in March was sent to deceased individuals, according to the Treasury's Inspector General for Tax Administration. By April 30 the agency had disbursed a total of about $193 billion in total payments.

On June 25, the Government Accountability Office said that the Treasury and IRS "did not use the death records to stop payments to deceased individuals for the first three batches of payments." The agency initially determined under the program's rules that payments were authorized to anyone who filed a tax return for 2019, and the agency proceeded to disburse to its list of filers, alive or deceased.

The GAO report said the IRS "should consider cost-effective options for notifying ineligible recipients on how to return payments."

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

GAO: Report to Congress on COVID-19 response and recovery efforts

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Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

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About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.