IRS scrambles to block payments after sending 1.1 million stimulus checks to dead people: report

An independent watchdog has revealed that the IRS sent stimulus checks to over 1 million dead people because the agency initially believed it did not have the authority to withhold them, POLITICO reports.

When the agency decided to reverse that decision, it attempted to the block the payments to deceased recipients, even asking relatives to return the payments that went through. The agency hasn't said why it reversed course. As of April 30, almost 1.1 million payments totaling $1.4 billion had been paid out.

"Though they represented a tiny share of the more than 160 million payments made, they received outsized attention, with critics calling them evidence of government mismanagement. In mid-April, President Trump said publicly he wanted that money returned," POLITICO reports.

"Government veterans have said it is all-but-inevitable the dead would get paid when the IRS is under pressure to distribute payments as quickly as possible, even as the coronavirus was killing tens of thousands of people," the report continued. "Some outside experts had questioned whether the legislation approved by Congress gave the executive branch the power to stop the payments."

Read the full report over at POLITICO.