Thousands of foreigners in the United States on temporary work visas mistakenly received $1,200 coronavirus stimulus checks likely due to errors they made when filing tax forms for the first time, according to a report by National Public Radio.
While officials do not know the exact number of foreign workers who received a check, people from 129 different countries, including Brazil, Canada, China, India, Nigeria and South Korea, all claimed to have received the funds, NPR reported, adding that many went on to spend the money outside the United States.
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“I would say probably anywhere to a third to a half [of non-U.S. citizens] are filing the wrong return,” Georgia attorney Clayton Cartwright, an expert on immigration tax law, told NPR. Cartwright speculated whether the latest stimulus mix-up happened because foreign workers used electronic tax services such as TurboTax when that path is only actually available to U.S. filers.
“I don’t know if the IRS would even be able to tell,” he said. “I mean, they have no way of knowing. You don’t mark on your [Form 1040] tax return whether you’re a citizen.”
The $2.2 trillion relief measure, called the CARES Act, provided the payments to American workers as the rapidly spreading pandemic shuttered businesses nationwide and forced employees to stay home.
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The $1,200 checks were intended only for U.S. citizens and legal “resident aliens,” while temporary foreign workers, who typically enter the U.S. annually for low-wage seasonal jobs, got no deal.
Many of them still received money during the first round of the stimulus, NPR reported.
Some are attempting to give the money back, according to a company that assists non-U.S. residents with tax preparation.
Sprintax told NPR that it has already amended 5,000 returns for foreign workers who received the checks.
The Treasury Department meanwhile said it was “exploring possible options” to address the issue to keep it from happening again.
The first Americans to receive the payments in April got them seamlessly through direct bank deposits.
Since then, however, several technical mishaps have either delayed paper checks through the mail or allowed the money to be delivered into the wrong hands.
In May, several reports emerged around the country that some people who received their $1,200 stimulus through prepaid debit cards instead of paper checks were confusing the payments for junk mail and unwittingly tossing them in the trash.
Then in June, an eyebrow-raising report by The Washington Post revealed that more than 1 million stimulus checks worth nearly $1.4 billion had been sent to dead people.
Republicans and the Trump administration have been accused of a lack of oversight, with Democrats also criticizing the delay of mailed payments after the Treasury Department decided to add Trump’s signature to the lower left corner of the checks.
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