Social Security Update: IRS Announcement + Interview with Commissioner Astrue

Social Security Update and Interview with Commissioner Astrue

Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Astrue, who was the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2007 through 2013, and if you know your recent history, you’ll recognize that he headed the SSA throughout the last financial crisis and we spoke about the role of Social Security during a time of crisis and uncertainty, the unique challenges faced by Social Security at a time like this, and many other things.

I know you don’t want to miss that, but first, before I share with you the interview I had with the Commissioner, let me just give a brief update from the IRS that I know will be of interest to some of you.

So we’ve known for a while that if you’re on Social Security retirement, SSI, SSDI, Veterans Benefits, and/or Railroad Retirement Benefits and you don’t file a tax return, you’re good for the $1,200 stimulus payment.

We’ve also known for a while that if you need to report a child under the age of 17 to get the additional $500 for them, you need to use either the TurboTax Stimulus Edition or the IRS Portal for Non-Filers.

What the IRS just announced today is that you must use that portal by this Wednesday, April 22, at noon Eastern Time.

So please, if you are in one of the groups that does not need to file a tax return to get the $1,200 stimulus — Social Security retirement, SSI, SSDI, Veterans Benefits, and Railroad Retirement Benefits — and you have a dependent child under the age of 17, perhaps a child you had or adopted later in life or perhaps a grandchild you care for, use the IRS portal for non-filers by this Wednesday at noon Eastern Time.

If you don’t submit your information in the IRS portal by this coming Wednesday at noon Eastern Time, to report dependent children under the age of 17, you will still get your $1,200 payment automatically, but you won’t get the additional $500 payment per child in 2020.

You will get it as a tax refund, next year, in 2021, but you’ll obviously have to file a 2020 tax return, and I would prefer that you don’t have to go through that hassle and that that you get your money faster than having to wait a year.

So right now the IRS is asking all of us to help them with this, and they came up with this, “Plus $500 Push,” so please share this video with anybody you know who may need to know this very urgent information, because I know there are people out there who still need to take action, and now we know they have less than 48 hours to do so.

So get on that and please share it with those who may need to hear this.

Now, let’s move on to my interview with Commissioner Astrue.

One thing I want to note is that this interview was done before Treasury and the SSA announced on April 15 that SSI recipients will get their $1,200 stimulus automatically, so one question I asked the Commissioner was pertaining to the uncertainty that SSI recipients had at the time regarding whether they had to file a simple tax return or not.

After we recorded this interview, that matter was cleared up, so please don’t be confused by that question.

Enjoy the interview.

2 comments

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