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The Bryan administration will make the last set of $600 Covid-19 stimulus payments to Virgin Islanders this week, meaning the $1,400 stimulus checks will follow next week, the administration revealed during its weekly Covid-19 press briefing Monday.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue will send 10,000 names to the Dept. of Finance to begin processing the first batch of the $1,400 checks this week, and the administration expects “those payments to start hitting mailboxes next week," said Gov't House Communications Director Richard Motta. B.I.R. and D.O.F. are expected to process 10,000 checks each week until the payments are complete. "We anticipate that by the end of May all payments under the American Rescue Act will have been made," Mr. Motta said.
The administration said the Department of Finance last week issued 3,537 $600 stimulus checks which it said totaled over $2.7 million, though the correct figure is $2,122,200. It was not clear whether those checks included payments more than the $600 the administration mentioned.
An additional 1,700 checks — which represent the number of individuals who recently filed their 2019 taxes or had issues with their recently resolved filing — will be mailed out this week, and that those checks represent the last issuance of the CARES Act 2 funding, or the $600 stimulus payments.
According to the administration, the deadline for making claims for the $600 payments ended on March 15. However, “we have left the door open to allow as many people as possible to be issued checks on that funding,” Mr. Motta said. He said the government does not want to send any funds back to the federal government.
Mr. Motta said if after this week a person has not received a $600 payment, the next option is to file for that payment on the 2021 income tax filing because B.I.R. has already begun adjusting its system to accommodate the $1,400 checks provided by the American Rescue Plan, signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Questions relative to the stimulus programs should be directed to the B.I.R. Hotline for Stimulus and Tax Refund Assistance: 340-714-9325.
