I'm trying to write something sharing info w/ incarcerated people about wtf happened with the stimulus payments for them in 2020, and how to get the payments now. I just want to briefly review some of the absolutely mind-blowing bullshit the IRS pulled.

1. The IRS said loved ones outside can't e-file stimulus claims for people inside. Criminal liability blah blah. GUESS WHAT. Nearly everyone who filed online for loved ones inside? Loved one got the $. By contrast, people who "followed instructions"+filed paper? Where to begin...

2. The court ordered the IRS to give paper 1040s to all incarceration facilities with instructions for filing a simplified version that basically was just bio data & "give me my stimulus." But the IRS asked for and got a deadline of Oct. 28, about ~2 weeks past the then-deadline.

3. So then the deadline got moved (a little). BUT STILL, many or most incarceration facilities did not get, or did not distribute, the forms.

So obviously it fell to people self-organizing to get the forms + info inside, as everyone knew would happen from the start.

4. Then after massive nationwide efforts, scrambling to update instructions every few days, literally countless thousands filed. And waited. And waited.

Eventually, the IRS said "oh those paper claims you're waiting to have paid out? got 'em! but also, we're not processing them.

4 (cont). They were just like: "sorry, we decided that we didn't want to process any more of them after the week of December 14, so all that work went to waste! ha... so anyway incarcerated folks can file AGAIN for the rebate on their 2020 taxes."

5. Then, there were a million problems with distributions of checks for those claims that DID get processed. Some prisons rejected checks. In some states the IRS sent debit cards ( https://www.npr.org/2021/02/06/964469718/stimulus-debit-cards-unusable-for-prison-inmates-in-at-least-four-states) people can't used. Some prisons ate up some folks' checks through fees. Etc

6. Then, the second stimulus passed. Many folks who filed the claim for the first—who should've thus gotten the second—got a notice that said: "hi sorry, you owed us EXACTLY $600 in taxes from 2007 [yes really they all said this], so we used it to pay that, have a nice day!"

6 (cont.). Like thousands. All across the US. Got this bogus notice.

6 (cont.). Eventually the IRS admitted that the notice was an error... so they were gonna send those folks who erroneously got this BS notice the second stimulus, right? Lol of course not. Those people have to file 2020 taxes and claim it as a rebate.

7. Now—2020 taxes.

Before, the IRS offered a simplified form. Now, have to file the full 1040 for 2020 taxes.
Before, garnishment protections. Now, almost none.

So folks who got screwed last time because the IRS sat on their claims, or gave a bogus notice, they're worse off.

I could go on but honestly I lose track of all the forms of bullshit the IRS and prisons have pulled on this.

The entire shell-game process of misinformation, foot-dragging, obstructionism, willful neglect, obfuscation, etc. is just wildly spiteful.

It's also easily remedied/mitigated. The IRS knows who's incarcerated & where & esp. for those who filed already, they know eligibility.

So they could really just cut the checks and now make folks go through a whole new, harder round of hoop-jumping. I'm not holding my breath, but I haven't heard a peep out of a single member of Congress about this.

Oh I forgot one of my favorite details:

Apparently the IRS decided—just, y'know, because—that it wouldn't update the "check payment status" tool but only for incarcerated people. Like, anyone else could check their payment status. But not them/their loved ones outside.

And another: there was that time when the IRS asked many people to verify their identity, but then they set up an identity verification process that was *literally impossible to complete from prison*