Vets receive payment

April 17, 2020 8:46 PM

Senator Jeff Merkley just sent out an email saying vets who have not filed taxes (and who may not have filed in 2018 and 2019) will, according to the Treasury, receive a $1200 payment. It is for any vet who uses VA benefits.

Is benefit intended to mean only VA disability payments or does it extend to all vets who use (or have used) the VA for school loans, home loans, hospital services or anything else that may be considered a VA benefit?

posted by CollectiveMind to Technology (2 answers total)

These checks of up to $1,200 are the 2020 CARES Act stimulus payments to US adults.

American adults (veterans and nonveterans) who make $75,000 or less a year will receive the full $1,200 amount; the more you make above $75,000 a year (per person), the less you'll get, and I believe that the stimulus check is phased out altogether for people making $90,000 and above.

The first checks were issued this week. They were directly deposited into the bank accounts of people who had filed tax returns for 2018 and/or 2019. The accounts were linked to these people's past tax filings.

The good news for low-income and disabled veterans is that their checks will be directly deposited into their bank accounts, regardless whether they have ever had to file a tax return. The IRS will connect with them through the bank accounts linked to their monthly VA payments, according to the Stars and Stripes.

A lot of low-income and disabled veterans had missed out on the first wave of stimulus checks this week because they don't earn enough to have to file tax returns. If the IRS hadn't arranged for direct deposit via their VA information, they might have had to wait months for a paper stimulus check to be mailed to them.
posted by virago at 9:51 PM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

My understanding is that the arrangement is for VA to share direct deposit information they have with the IRS. If a veteran is getting, say, GI bill payments for housing and textbooks that goes directly to their bank account, then yes, the VA will likely transfer that info to the IRS. For folks with benefits like VA health care that don’t involve direct payments from the VA, then no, I don’t think this particular solution will apply to them, at least from the description I’ve been seeing in the news reports.
posted by alligatorpear at 1:28 PM on April 18, 2020