On two occasions in 2020 and 2021, the federal government sent out stimulus checks, to deal with the economic effects of the pandemic and put money in the pockets of Americans to stimulate the economy.
After the economy recovered but inflation rose, it was pretty clear by the end of 2021 that no more stimulus checks were coming. However, some recipients either never got their checks, and or had them clawed back by the IRS, to pay back taxes owed.
What the IRS Can Take Back
According to CNBC, the CARES Act, which was the COVID relief package passed by the first Trump Administration in 2020, the first $1,200 stimulus check was exempt from garnishment, and that was also the case with the second COVID relief bill passed that December.
However, no such protections were put in place for the stimulus checks in the American Rescue Plan Act, the third and final stimulus action that was passed by the Biden Administration in early 2021.
What If You Never Got Your Stimulus Check?
The IRS said last December that taxpayers “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.”
Those payments went out in December to about 1 million taxpayers who did not receive the Recovery Rebate Credit, which was the official name for the stimulus check that went out in 2021.
Most, however, were supposed to be received by late January.
Once again, the 2021 credit was the one in which protections against IRS garnishment were not in place.
Those who never received their check can check with the IRS as to where it went.
Could There Be More Stimulus Checks?
A viral post on X, earlier this week, claimed that “Trump $5k stimulus checks coming out February 31st.” It was, however, not real, and came from the anti-Trump Republican organization The Lincoln Project. There are not, after all, 31 days in February.
In reality, the Trump Administration has not proposed or announced the issuance of new stimulus checks. The budget resolution that passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday did not contain stimulus checks or anything resembling them and was instead focused on a $4.5 trillion tax cut and $2 trillion in spending cuts.
The budget is far from final, and quite far apart from the Senate’s version.
But What About the DOGE Dividend?
There has been one proposal that would involve direct checks to most Americans. But for a variety of reasons, it’s very far away from becoming reality.
That is the DOGE Dividend, which is the idea that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could save so much money that a portion of it could be returned to taxpayers in the form of a check.
James Fishback, the CEO of the investment firm Azoria and someone who advises DOGE, first issued the proposal last week, sharing it on X and seeming to draw the interest of Musk himself, with Trump praising the concept in a speech at an investor conference.
Fishback described it as “a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE.”
If DOGE manages $2 trillion in savings — a questionable assertion, to be sure — the proposal states that 20 percent of that money be shared with the U.S. households who were net payers of federal income taxes, which would amount to about $5,000 per household.
Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the 2023 Turning Point Action Conference at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.
However, there are many reasons to think that this will never happen. For one thing, there are reasons to think DOGE hasn’t saved nearly as much money as it says it has.
Beyond that, sending out $5,000 per taxpayer household would be both inflationary and also regressive, as the money saved from the cutting of social programs would be redirected into the pockets of those with high enough incomes that they pay net federal taxes.
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
