Stimulus Check Update: IRS Is Asking Some Americans To Send Back Their Checks

KEY POINTS

The Massachusetts resident said she never received the $600 check
She attempted to call the IRS but never got through to an agent who could help her with her concern
Taxpayers who have lost their checks can request a payment trace

The IRS is asking some Americans who received stimulus payments to send back their checks.

Natalie Bonelli, a Massachusetts resident, said she received an official letter from the IRS in early August. In the notice, the agency demanded that she pay back $600 plus $3.12 in interest after she claimed a relief payment on her 2020 tax return.

Bonelli was living in Brooklyn when the IRS began distributing the first round of stimulus payments in the spring of 2020. She later moved to Massachusetts and was also eligible to receive a $600 check from the second round of payments distributed in December. When the IRS sent the second check, it went to her address in Brooklyn.

"I know for sure it got sent to Brooklyn," she told WCVB. "It did get mailed to the old address, I just never received it."

Bonelli later requested to claim the missing payment on her 2020 tax return this spring, which the IRS is now demanding her to pay back. "And now I have to give back money I never got, so it's a little bit frustrating," she said.

According to the IRS, taxpayers who have lost their checks can request a payment trace by calling the agency at 800-829-1954 or completing Form 3911, Taxpayer Statement Regarding Refund.

Bonelli did attempt to call the IRS but said she never got through to an agent who could help trace the missing check.

"I can't be the only person. I can't be the only person on the planet who didn't get one of the payments and can't find out why," she told the news platform, adding: "I'd love to have the money that's owed me."

The notice comes as more Americans are calling for a fourth round of stimulus checks amid the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. The White House has yet to indicate any plans to push out legislation that would send more aid to Americans even as a petition for $2,000 monthly checks has received more than 2.8 million of its three million signature goal.

This has prompted some states and Native American tribes, such as the Choctaw Nation, to issue their own relief aid to residents and members, respectively.