Key Points and Summary: The IRS is distributing a stimulus check to 1 million Americans who missed their 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit.
-These stimulus payments, issued automatically, should arrive by late January 2025.
-Taxpayers who believe they’re eligible can check their online IRS accounts for details.
-Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is pursuing a massive IRS overhaul, potentially cutting staffing, which could delay tax refunds and other payments.
-As stimulus checks phase out, this may be the last chance for Americans to claim missed COVID-era relief funds.
-If you haven’t received your payment, visit the IRS website to check your status and eligibility.
Surprise Stimulus Checks? IRS Issues Recovery Payments in 2025
Stimulus checks for almost every American happened on three occasions in 2020 and 2021, during the depths of the pandemic. Two were distributed during Donald Trump’s first presidency, and a third during the opening months of Joe Biden’s.
The idea of the checks was to put money in the pockets of Americans and also to stimulate the economy during the pandemic period when there was a high risk of a recession. The economy eventually turned the corner, although soon there was a new problem, rising inflation, which some attributed to the size of the stimulus.
End of the Stimulus Era
That meant that the idea of another round of stimulus was essentially off the table for the rest of the Biden presidency, while neither side proposed a return to the idea in the 2024 campaign. The Trump presidency, in its opening weeks, has not revisited stimulus checks either.
However, there is one more way stimulus checks are going out: For taxpayers who did not receive them back when they were supposed to.
According to a statement from the IRS on December 20, “special payments” were set to go out to about 1 million taxpayers who “did not claim 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit.”
Those payments, the IRS said at the time, would go out automatically in December and “should arrive in most cases by late January 2025.”
“The IRS continues to work hard to make improvements and help taxpayers,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in the December statement. “These payments are an example of our commitment to go the extra mile for taxpayers. Looking at our internal data, we realized that one million taxpayers overlooked claiming this complex credit when they were actually eligible. To minimize headaches and get this money to eligible taxpayers, we’re making these payments automatic, meaning these people will not be required to go through the extensive process of filing an amended return to receive it.”
How to Get the Stimulus Check
“You may be eligible to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on your 2020 or 2021 federal tax return if you didn’t get an Economic Impact Payment or got less than the full amount,” the IRS said at the time. “It is important to understand that the Economic Impact Payments applied to different tax years. Depending on whether you missed the first, second or third payment, you will need to file either a 2020 or 2021 tax return to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit.”
Those still seeking their payment can go to this link to check their individual online accounts.
What Will Become of the IRS?
Trump, since returning to the presidency, has been toying with a longtime Republican goal: Gutting the IRS.
And while that might make some conservative ideologues cheer, it also could serve to make it take longer for Americans to, say, receive their tax refunds.
“On day one, I immediately halted the hiring of any new IRS agents. They hired, or tried to hire, 88,000 new workers to go after you. And we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we’ll move them to the border. And I think we’re going to move them to the border,” the president said in a Las Vegas speech in late January.
“Where they’re allowed to carry guns, you know, they’re so strong on guns, but these people are allowed to carry guns, so we’ll probably move them to the border.”

Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C.
Trump appeared to refer to a misleading talking point about the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which allocated $80 billion in new funding (over ten years) to the IRS. This would, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted at the time, lead to the hiring of the “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents.”
However, that figure referred to a Treasury Department study, years early, of how many people the IRS could hire with the desired funding; the 87,000 people would have been hired over many years, would not all have been agents, and certainly would not all have been an “army.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
