Nearly 14 million people will be getting checks from the Internal Revenue Service in the coming weeks, an interest payment on tax returns delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IRS announced last week that interest payments will be sent to 13.9 million Americans who filed their 2019 federal income tax returns by the extended deadline of July 15 and either received a refund in the past three months or are still awaiting a refund.
The average interest payment is expected to be around $18. Taxpayers who received their refund by direct deposit will have their interest payment directly deposited in the same account, an IRS statement said.
Normally, the IRS is required to pay interest on income tax return refunds if the return is filed in a timely manner and the refund is not paid within 45 days of the return being filed.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual tax due date of April 15 was moved to July 15. That delay is considered a disaster postponement.
Once a disaster postponement delay is issued, the IRS must pay interest calculated from the original April 15 deadline to the new deadline, which was July 15 this year.
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