Non-filers: Expect a letter about your stimulus check

If you don’t usually file a tax return, or didn’t file a return for 2018 or 2019, you might not know you could qualify for an economic impact payment. You might be one of the nine million people getting a letter from the IRS letting you know how to register on their website to claim your payment. The new deadline for filing is November 21, 2020 .

If you get this letter from the IRS , it’s legit. Go only to the IRS’s real website at IRS.gov/EIP , or call them directly at 800-919-9835 to register to claim your payment. You only have until November 21. But if someone claiming to be from the IRS calls, emails, or texts about helping you get your stimulus payment, that person is running a government imposter scam on you. Hang up, and don’t respond to or click on any links in texts or emails.

Why? Because the IRS will not text, email, or call you about your economic impact payment. And they’ll never ask you to pay a fee to get your money.

The IRS announced “National EIP Registration Day,” taking place November 10. That’s when the IRS and partners will do a final push to reach out to people who don’t normally file taxes. They want to be sure they know that they may qualify for a payment and should register at IRS.gov to request their EIP.

Visit the IRS’s website to find out more about stimulus payments. And be sure to tell the FTC if someone pretending to be from the government contacts you.

Note: This blog, originally posted on October 7, 2020, has been updated with information on the IRS’s National EIP Registration Day.

Read Our Privacy Act Statement

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

Read Our Comment Policy

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

• We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
• We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
• We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
• We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.