Treasury is implementing a new requirement to receive the $ 600 incentive approved by Congress

Individuals who received the $ 1,200 incentive using the 2018 sheet as a basis must meet their contributory liability for 2019 — if they have not done so — in order to be eligible for relief. $ 600 contributor approved by the U.S. Congress, warned Assistant Secretary of Internal Revenue Roxanna Santiago.

“All those who received the $ 1,200 based on a 2018 template and have not yet rooted their 2019 sheet, we recommend that they root this 2019 template … and based on this 2019 template is that this new law establishes the payment of $ 600 for all those who are taxpayers“, The official said in a virtual orientation held today by the Treasury.

Due to adjustments in the operations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government extended until January 15 the deadline for the listing of the payroll. “Based on this 2019 staff is that this new law establishes the payment of $ 600 for all those who are taxpayers, so based on the information that the Department already has we will be disbursing“, Santiago detailed.

The agency submitted its distribution plan on Monday, which is awaiting approval from the Treasury Department. “The program, as we established in the draft distribution plan, seeks to make life easier for all those people who were eligible and received their $ 1,200 incentive,” the secretary of Treasury, Francisco Parés.

Parés estimated that 2.8 million residents of the island would benefit from the incentive, whether in their individual, partner or dependent capacity. “Once Governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia swears on January 2 there should be no gap in the implementation of this, as both teams have done a great job in this transition process,” the headline stated.

Parés, along with part of his team, this afternoon offered an update on the incentive distribution program through the agency’s virtual platforms in which he was also accompanied by Washington-based commissioner Jenniffer González. “This second stipend would work independently of the first, but it will make it much easier for the Treasury once it has the approval of the Federal Treasury and the IRS,” Gonzalez said.

Although the program keeps the eligibility conditions virtually unchanged, it also removed the requirement established by the Cares Act that required that, in the case of married people who pay a payroll together, both must have a valid Social Security number. , which in the past prevented one of the spouses from not qualifying. “I would say it’s the most dramatic change,” Santiago acknowledged, adding that the law allows the database already compiled by the agency to be used to distribute the previous incentive.

Dependents who may receive the incentive are still those under the age of 17, according to information for the 2019 tax year.

During the virtual discussion, one of the biggest concerns was whether people who hold some kind of debt with the Child Support Administration (Assume), as happened with the first stimulus, would not receive the $ 600. ” We welcomed the recommendation or instruction from the federal government that these obligations should be met before disbursing this payment to individuals, “said Angel Pantoja Rodriguez, undersecretary of the Treasury Department.

As for the $ 1,200 stimulus, delivered mostly between May and July, Parés has indicated that 17,000 individuals are pending disbursement, either because of an error in the bank account number provided to the agency or because the check has been returned by the postal service.

“People who requested that payment be by check and have not received it should send a message through SURI, a mechanism by which the Department is communicating with individuals,” Parés noted.