Tag: taxes

Dead people may still get $600 stimulus checks

Dead people may get some of the $600 stimulus checks the federal government began issuing Tuesday night.

That would mirror what happened this past spring, when deceased individuals were among the recipients of a prior round of direct payments, of up to $1,200 per person.

More than 1 million decedents had gotten a check by the end of April, worth a collective $1.4 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office. The IRS asked for that money back, leading to confusion and whiplash for heirs such as surviving spouses and family members.

Now, a $900 billion Covid relief package, which President Donald Trump signed into law Sunday, may create a similar situation, though Congress put a firewall in place to limit its scope, according to tax experts.

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NYU prof: What if White Americans’ taxes were investigated for ties to slavery?

A New York University professor suggested that White people should be forced to submit their taxes to be checked for ties to slavery.

On Nov. 18, the University of California-Berkeley hosted a panel titled “The Future of Freedom: Reparations after 400 Years.” The goal of the panel was to “consider what the question of reparations means for this freedom’s fulfillment and what kind of future could follow for African-Americans beyond 400,” according to the video description. 

The panel consisted of professors Bertrall Ross and Jovan Scott Lewis, both of UC-Berkeley; Katherine Franke of Columbia Law School, and Michael Ralph of New York University.

Each professor provided past examples of reparations given to marginalized people, and said these could be examples of how to pay reparations to African Americans for 400 years of “systemic and violent racism.” 

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IRS Plans a 50% Ramp-Up in Audits of Small Businesses Next Year

The Internal Revenue Service is planning to ramp up audits of smaller businesses and their investors by about 50% next year, following years of persistently low examination rates, an agency official said Tuesday.

The result could be a surge in audits of companies ranging from mom-and-pop retail stores and technology startups to investment funds that have historically faced only infrequent checks thanks to the time and effort required at the IRS.

“The IRS is focusing our efforts to increase compliance activity in this area of not only partnerships, but also investor returns related to pass-throughs,” De Lon Harris, the IRS deputy commissioner of examination for small businesses, said at an American Institute of Certified Public Accountants event. For 2021 “we are planning for 50% more than we had in the previous year.”

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