The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released a new electronic portal to assist people using Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other non-filers to receive the stimulus payments, known as Recovery Rebates, authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). People can visit the portal, enter their personal information, and that information will be utilized to send them a stimulus payment. 

One of the best known provisions of the CARES Act involves sending stimulus checks directly to many Americans that will amount to $1,200 for most people. CARES specifies that these checks will be sent based on tax returns for 2018 or 2019, or if there were no filings for either year, based on 1099s for 2019. However, because people using SSI do not receive 1099s, this seemed to indicate that many people with intellectual/developmental disabilities would need to file a tax return even though they are paying no taxes.

The electronic portal provides a workaround for that issue, although for many SSI recipients this may still represent a hardship. Stakeholders are continuing to urge the IRS to circumvent even this abbreviated process and use data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) to process Recovery Rebates for SSI recipients.  

For more information, the portal is found at https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here.