My Dead Relative Received a Stimulus Check. Can We Keep It?

jcgriff2

jcgriff2

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Over 1 million dead people received stimulus checks from the US Government -

AARP said:
Most people would be happy to find an extra couple hundred dollars in their mailbox or bank account — unless, of course, the unexpected windfall was earmarked for someone who died. Not only is the money a painful reminder of a loved one's absence, it raises vexing questions: What do I do with it? Should I spend it? Send it back? And if so, how?

That was the dilemma facing Americans who received $1,200 stimulus payments in 2020 by paper check or direct deposit, in the names of deceased spouses and other family members. The federal government had sent stimulus payments to about 1.1 million dead people totaling nearly $1.4 billion. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) told people to give the money back.

But the rules have changed for the second, maximum $600 stimulus checks, as well as the $1,400 checks being issued now. The legislation that authorized the second stimulus payment to eligible recipients says that only recipients who died in 2019 or earlier must return the payments. But, the legislation that authorized the third round of stimulus payments says that those who died in 2020 aren’t qualified to get a stimulus check. Someone who died in 2021 still qualified.

The IRS is checking to make sure that checks aren’t issued to people who died when they weren’t qualified to get one.
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more.... Cashing Stimulus Checks Sent to Deceased Persons





Steve Lehto - Lehto's Law

 
It happened to a buddy of mine, the IRS went out of their way to send is long time girl friend a check after discovering her bank account closed after she past away in 2019 so far he has received 2 stimulus checks for her and has gotten such a run around trying to call and notify the Government he gave up and figured when they want the checks back they'll send someone to tell him.......................................
 
I understand the government's position on this. I know many people who were pretty much in dire straights, in desperate need for those checks. And then, of course, every day the checks were delayed, the news media (especially the hard-right outlets) were slamming the current administration for failing to get the checks out in a timely basis.

I don't really know the exact process for how death notices get distributed to and registered at all the necessary government agencies. Of course, if someone receiving Social Security and/or military/federal retirement checks, death notifications to those agencies are (or should be) almost immediate. But how does that notice normally get to the IRS? I don't know. But I do know come next tax season, that person's death is then (or should be) reported to the IRS by his/her heirs, or executor.

So of those 1 million checks sent to deceased people, I wonder how many went to folks who were NOT receiving Social Security or military/federal pensions? If someone in their 40s who is NOT a government employee and not receiving Social Security checks dies, how would the SSA or the IRS know of the death? Seems to me they wouldn't. Not sure how the SSA ever would be notified and the IRS not until the dead person's last tax returns are filed.

So if Congress required the IRS to ensure only the living received those checks, that surely would have caused further significant delays for everyone, including those who desperately needed those checks. Plus, it would have cost a LOT of $$$ to verify every man, woman and child (and that's a lot more than 1 million) who got a check were still alive and authorized to get one.

I'm just not sure there is/was any way the government could have issued those checks without somebody complaining (legitimately or not) about some form of fraud, waste or abuse.

I do believe, that in the end, the vast majority of the checks that were issued to the deceased will eventually be returned.
 
It is not at all uncommon for government checks to be issued to deceased individuals, but it's generally *recently* deceased individuals. And it's more common where funeral directors are not involved (which does happen) as one of their "basic services" is reporting the death to the Social Security Administration which then propagates that information "throughout the system" (and which actually takes a while). In cases where this doesn't happen, it's up to someone "handling the estate" to promptly report the death, generally to the Social Security Administration.

And you can't say that there should never be a government check issued to someone who's deceased, as tax refunds are still issued, by check rather than direct deposit, when one is filing for someone who died beforehand.

Being in the middle of being an executor, I'm all too familiar with this. One of the first questions I asked when this journey began was, "How do I report, or does someone else report, the death to the government?" I knew I'd have to handle the private pension plan myself.

I can also say that the stimulus checks, when they're being issued as checks, come in an envelope that has a checkbox that reads, in bold letters, something along the lines of, "If recipient is deceased check this box and deposit in any mailbox." I had to do that, too.
 
Wrench97 said:
and figured when they want the checks back they'll send someone to tell him.......................................
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But if they're never cashed no one is ever going to come looking. It's not at all uncommon for those who receive these sorts of checks to just destroy them (if they're smart - the fools cash them and think they'll somehow never get caught).
 
We got a notification for the first stimulus that my Mother in Law was getting a check. What was interesting was the notice clearly stated DECEASED. Fortunately we didn't have to deal with it as a check never cane although we notified our Accountant in case someone else cashed it so there would be a record.
 
Well, now I'm faced with having received the $1400 stimulus check for my friend who passed away in January.

Is there any source, other than that AARP article, that gives further details on whether these can be kept or not. The AARP article does not give any references I could find that I feel make their statements definitive.

If anyone knows of a definitive reference, either in the body of the law or some government publication, that the $1400 checks just sent can be kept, please post it.
 
Thanks gentlemen. I think I'm going to have to make an appointment with the local IRS office in regard to other issues related to the estate, so I'll definitely ask them, too.
 
And it's still not entirely clear to me exactly which of the stimulus payments are involved as far as who died when keeping what.

That's the trick. In my specific case my friend died on January 13, 2021. For the stimulus check prior to this one, I did what anyone would expect when you receive an envelope that looks like this:

Stimulus_Check_Envelope.jpg

And that was to check the "If recipient is deceased" checkbox and put it right back in to the mail.

Other than tax refund checks for the prior year filed for someone who's deceased, I've never had a single "government check" be legally cashable if it was issued after their date of death.

This is a weird one, that's for sure.
 
Wrench97 said:
It happened to a buddy of mine, the IRS went out of their way to send is long time girl friend a check after discovering her bank account closed after she past away in 2019 so far he has received 2 stimulus checks for her and has gotten such a run around trying to call and notify the Government he gave up and figured when they want the checks back they'll send someone to tell him.......................................
Click to expand...

They sure will - the US Marshalls with an arrest warrant! :)
 

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