Have You Heard The One About Rebates by April 6?

[BobKamman]

Your clients have, and will be calling you about it.  From Bloomberg:

Schumer said in an CNN interview that Trump wanted the money to start going out April 6 to get checks or direct deposit payments into people’s hands as soon as possible. A family of four could receive as much as $3,400, according to the Senate bill.

“Big help, quick help is on the way,” Schumer said.

Politicians and economists think that’s a great idea. With businesses already laying off workers and economic activity grinding to a halt, many people are wondering how they are going to pay bills due in April. But former IRS officials warn it may not be possible for the agency to act so quickly.

“I’m confident they’re going to do better than anybody would expect with all of the limitations they face, but it won’t be easy,” former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said.

The IRS declined to comment on how fast the agency could issue the payments. The Treasury Department did not respond to a request to comment. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the April 6 deadline.

Processing these stimulus payments will likely take much longer than two weeks because there isn’t a centralized, up-to-date list of every household, the number of children, income and address or direct deposit bank information, the former officials said. When the IRS sent checks to large swaths of households most recently -- in 2008 and 2009 -- it took more than two months to get the money in the mail.

It will be easy for the IRS to send money to some taxpayers, such as Social Security recipients and those who get benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, because the federal government already sends funds to those individuals regularly.

“The IRS may be able to handle payments that quickly for smaller number of payments, but for that many millions it will require special handling,” said Mark Everson, IRS commissioner from 2003 to 2007.