 Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's stimulus payment training for nonprofit and government case managers. My name is Andre Serrano and I'll be your main presenter today. I will be joined by a few colleagues throughout the presentation. But first, here is Dominic Toshi with a welcome message. Next slide. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Dominic Toshi and I'm with the county's Bureau of Economic Development and want to thank you for joining us today. I know a lot of you are familiar with our bureau and in a number of cases are partners. I want to but I do want to share a few points for those who are a little bit familiar and who are familiar with the bureau. We support a range of programs and initiatives, primarily in suburban Cook County in the areas of economic development, community development and housing. And, you know, particularly over the past year during COVID. We've supported a range of efforts for both businesses and residents. Again, largely in suburban Cook County. We support loans to businesses impacted by COVID, a range of residents resident focus programs like rental and mortgage assistance, cash assistance, and also supported needs of the additional food insecurity, and the homeless population, among others. Today, and in our normal work we support a range of social service agencies and that's our connection to many of you, but I also hopeful we have some some new folks who aren't familiar with Cook County's work through our Bureau of Economic Development and look forward to sharing this information. We learned about the work of the get my payment Illinois coalition and really felt like the most important and near term thing we could do is help get this information out, in particular to our network of agencies, but also as far as we could to share information about how to help residents access these important resources. So I hope that you have you join us, you know, for those who are our partners, but also for those who aren't, we are also in addition to just sharing information today. We are interested in, and looking at potential grant support for agencies who might be interested in, and really help and bring, you know, helping residents access these resources so we'll be a bit more about that later in in the webinar, but again look forward to this conversation. Really do want to thank to get my payment Illinois coalition for partnering with us on this and their good work. Also, want to recognize my colleague pizza Kovac in the Bureau who's on the webinar as well for his work. And with that I'll turn it back to Andres. All right, next time please. Thanks, Nick for that wonderful introduction we're very happy to be here sharing this great information with everybody. Just to give everyone a little bit of background on the get my payment Illinois coalition. So we're a group of nonprofit organizations and we really want to make sure that just people, Illinoisans who are low income individuals who have not received their check individuals who could possibly get more money from filing a tax return. We want to make sure that these individuals have an opportunity to do that. And so our coalition includes Economic Awareness Council, New America, Chicago, Heartland Alliance and Heartland Human Care Services, which is a part of Heartland Alliance. We have a website which is get my payment Illinois.com. And we also have ways that you can contact us either throughout the website by email or by phone. So everyone should be able to access this website and getting contact with us if you have any further questions. Next slide. So again, my name is Andres Rano I'm the training and technical assistance coordinator at Heartland Alliance. And we've developed this training in collaboration with the rest of the group, really to give people and case managers the information to really help out our participants. You'll have my contact information here and we will share that also after the presentation in case you have any more questions. So thank you. Next slide. For the purpose of this training. We definitely want to make sure. Oh, sorry, this says you want to click. Thank you. So the purpose of this training is really to figure out who is eligible for the first and second stimulus checks. This will give us an opportunity to direct people to the appropriate resource. How to help clients get those stimulus payments if they haven't before as a recovery rebate credit. We also really want to kind of bring to light what are some other major tax credits that low income families could claim and should claim. We want to help clients explore different options for filing a tax return so we'll be discussing a few different ways. We also want to help people have lots of resources for receiving their check for example we're going to explore some safe affordable banking options with our partner at Bank on Chicago. So just a few things to keep in mind for the 2021 tax season, as well as some resources that will help your participants with this process and beyond. So that's really what why we're here today. Next slide please. So I would love to know who's on the call so please tell us a little bit about yourself I know there's a lot of different organizations who work with the city maybe you heard about as a different way. But please type your name and organization. So we can see who's on the call with us make some new connections. Say hi to some colleagues. So I'll give everyone a minute to do that. Okay, great. Welcome everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely great. Well thank you all for being here I really appreciate it continue to you know introduce yourself in the chat. I just want to again give everyone a thanks for being here and getting all this information for our participants. Next slide. Thank you. So I would really like to start off by giving everyone an introduction to why we're here the economic impact payments, also known as the stimulus checks. All right so the legal name is economic impact payment however we're today we're going to call them stimulus checks. That's how they were received. Now they are recovery rebates which is how we're going to be receiving them moving forward. So that's just a few different names to talk about the same concept. I see that everyone's introducing themselves so thank you for doing that. A little bit about the checks there were two rounds the initial round happened as you all remember last spring. Everyone was eligible for up to $1200 per individual couples were able to receive twice as much and eligible dependence under the age of 17 were able to receive $500. Now the second round was a little bit less it was up to $600 per individual. However, eligible dependence under 17 actually were eligible for $100 more for 600. So that's just to give you a little bit of information about how much people were supposed to receive. Okay. Next slide please. So who was eligible for these rounds. I really want to talk about who was eligible for those rounds because it really will allow you to determine who would have qualified and really so you can direct them to the correct place. So the people who should have who were eligible for rounds went into our US citizens or resident aliens who have a social security cannot be claimed than someone else's taxes. And they also have a certain amount of income, for example individuals had to make less than 75,000 individuals who were head of household or file this head of household could make a little bit more up to $1200 and $12500 and then married couples could make up to $150,000 if they were filing joint tax returns. Okay. If participants and clients and filers made more than those amounts, then they would receive a reduced payment right so if you made between 75 and 99,000 you would receive a little bit less. The same for individuals filing as head of household and of course the same for individuals filing joint tax returns. So it's just a little bit of information about what those payments looked like then who was eligible. Next slide please. So, you know, they said everyone is going to get their check automatically right so there's some people who should have received the check but didn't. And so what that's what we're going to talk about. Actually at the beginning this is a little bit of an older statistic but when we first started when we started doing this work around the second stimulus check. There were around $34 billion that hadn't even been dispersed yet so you can imagine that there is still a pot of money that individuals have not received and they're entitled to it. So people who should have received the EIP are individuals who filed in 2018 and 2019, or individuals who started receiving any of the following benefits prior to January 1 of 2020. So anyone who was receiving these types of benefits like Social Security retirement, Social Security disability insurance survivors benefits supplemental security income also known as SSI veterans benefits and railroad retirement benefits. As well as individuals that submitted their information through that IRS non filers tool which was promoted last spring. And just so that you all know it's entirely this so some of the changes that happened in round two are retroactive to round one for example individuals who were in mixed household status, meaning that someone in the house had a social someone didn't. They were initially not eligible during round one however they became eligible during round two, and they became eligible for round one retroactive. So a lot of the times those were the individuals who had to provide their information and or might have to request this as a rebate. Next slide please. So what if you qualify but you have not received your check. Next slide. So what you should do is figure out if the payment was sent so that you can take the appropriate action and decide if you need to request a rebate or file the payment trace. So the first kind of questions that you can ask is, Okay, to the clients. Did you receive a notice 1444, which was for EIP one, or a 1444 B, which was for EIP to have not received that then what you can do is you can create an account on the IRS website which will show you how to do in a little bit, and you can check your payment history. If it was issued so if you go on the website and you find out that it was issued but you never received it, then this would be the appropriate time for you to request the payment trace. And so we also have the steps for you to be able to request the payment trace and all of that information exist and get your pain get my payment Illinois. Okay, and we've also provided you with a number here in case people would rather call. Next slide please. So as I was saying, the IRS account can be created and it's an online account that is created through the IRS website which allows you to access any kind of information related to your account with the IRS. So for example you get like a payment history and any scheduled or pending payments which is exactly what we want people to know. You'll get some information about your most recent text return. And then you will also have some digital notices of the digital copies of those notices that we were talking about, such as 1444 and 1444 B. I'll also let you know if you know you got those 2020 checks dispersed or not so then that way you can take the appropriate action. It's also just a good you know it's good practice so that you can see where you're standing with the IRS it'll tell you if you have a payment plan, or if you have other things outside of you know what we're discussing today. Next slide please. So the recovery rebate credit is what we are telling individuals that they should request if they have not received their check. So for example, if you're eligible but you haven't received it. The best way to get it, and the easiest way to get it was to file a 2020 tax return to claim that tax as a recovery rebate credit. Okay, and so this is the kind of information that we were telling people. Even if you're not required to file a tax return so remember a lot of people don't normally file tax returns, whether it's because they have no income. Maybe they have very low income some individuals only received Social Security benefits. So for people who don't normally file, we wanted to let them know that you can file and you should file in 2020, so that you can reclaim that money that you didn't receive as a stimulus check or EAP, initially, as a recovery rebate credit. And even if you don't have to file a tax return, you may still get some money on some other credits and so that's what we're going to talk about a little bit today right. We want to encourage these individuals to think beyond just a recovery rebate credit how can you take advantage of changes in tax law so that you can support yourself and your family, especially now that there's not, you know, things are rough with COVID is still happening. I know we're moving forward but COVID is still happening and some of our people are still affected. Next slide please. So let's talk about some situations where you may be eligible for more than you received. Some individuals actually received funds but they may have been eligible for more and so then you can reclaim that difference as a recovery rebate credit. One of those situations is you have more dependence under the age of 17 in 2020 than you received the money for the IRS missed the person which could totally happen or a qualifying child. A lot of individuals who were incarcerated, it were technically not eligible during round one, however, that changed. So again, they become retroactively eligible. That also happened with our mixed households that is so as I mentioned earlier. Those individuals who were not eligible during round one are now eligible during round two and round one, and you know it is very likely that they did not receive that money and so then they could request it as a rebate. So I know for sure that a lot of our immigrant population doesn't necessarily know that or might not know that if they don't have access to, you know, the internet or someone who's actually telling them this information. So definitely if you work with those populations this is a great, great thing to let them know. And then also if there was an individual that was alive but then passed away. So these are just kind of some situations where maybe you got a little bit of money and you got some money but you could receive more. So again, in that case, if they were eligible for more. Tell them to get a recovery rebate credit because that's how they'll be able to get the difference. Next slide please. So now that you kind of know what are the situations where people should have gotten either more money or how people have been telling people like now you're eligible even if you weren't. How do you get that money. So like I said our main thing is file a tax return file a return. Alright, and you can do that for free. Obviously a lot of people feel very comfortable going to their accountant maybe someone that they know who helps their family do their taxes, but there are options to do it for free it would be. A deal to have our participants pay to request a rebate when we want them to get the total amount right. So some of these options are doing it online and you can do so a few different ways. You can access the IRS free file website, and you can do so by visiting the IRS website, which we're going to give you a link for. So this is a box that says file your taxes for free. And then they have a look up tool. So this look up tool will basically ask you for a handful of questions based on your financial situation in your tax situation. And then what it's going to do it's basically going to give you, based on those answers, an array of options for you to choose different softwares that you can use for free. Alright, Turbo text is one of the big ones Turbo text is very, you know, not only is it popular it's well known it's recognized it's easy to use. And so it's just one of the but it's only one of the nine brands that the IRS free file offers. And so there are options depending on how people feel how their income changes. And I know that for myself I was able to do it, not with turbo tax but another one of the filers so definitely check out this resource, because our participants were really benefit from this. Next slide. And along to go to go along with that. We understand that not everyone has that same level of comfort navigating these platforms and the softwares. So the get my payment Illinois coalition actually created some turbo tax guides, which exist on the tax help portion of the get my payment Illinois website. And this is really cool because there have been there are actually two guides, one specifically for individuals who receive only social security benefits, which is really great right because if you're someone who doesn't have to input any type of income. So this is the easiest way that you can report you know I just need to get my stimulus money. And then there's a separate turbo tax guide for those individuals actually receiving wages and receive a w two. So depending on your situation you can use either one of these guides, these guides exist in written form, as well as there is a recording that really follows through the entire process. So these reasons are really great, please make sure that you utilize those guys. This because this could be a really good way to help your participants navigate this process and just promoting the use of this free file. Who knows maybe in the future they'll be using this forever right and they'll be getting their taxes done free for a long time, which I think is great and what we really want people to do. You know, not everyone feels comfortable like I mentioned going to, you know, online and filling out all their paperwork. A lot of people get scared because it's taxes and the IRS and you know they can be very scary. So if you want some in person help or some additional help assistance through a with an actual person. There are volunteer income tax assistance sites. I'm sure that all of you are familiar with Vita sites. They all exist during tax time and some are actually open post tax time to help people with different types of tax problems or, you know, just additional support. And so there is an IRS Vita site locator which you can access via the IRS website. And then there's also another website which is called get your refund org. Put together by code for America and this also gives you resources so that you can have someone help you file these taxes. And so really what that looks like is that you know our participants are going to an organization which has volunteers who are trained to fill out taxes, depending on whether it's in person or not because you know we're in that middle position of COVID, you might have some of them have drop off service so you would drop off the documents, you would go back and pick them up when they're complete review them and then sign and then, you know, it's done. Other times there might be maybe social distance or maybe safe ways of working person to person in person and so definitely want to call the site before you, you know you go because availability might be a little bit different, but also so that you can gauge the people you feel with the service whether it's in person or dropping things off. Next slide please. And of course, you know, maybe someone is likes their paperwork, we know that there are people who like their paperwork will like to do things you know handwritten maybe there is an access thing where you do not have access to actual internet or access to you know leave your house to go do in person tax prep. So you can file a paper return, right. There are forms there are instructions the only thing I say with this is if you do something like a paper return. I want you to imagine a kitchen table filled with paperwork and the IRS kitchen table has a ton of paperwork and file and returns on there. And so it's obviously going to take a little bit longer. And then you want to make sure that you know, as you're exploring options with your participant you tell them online filing is probably going to be your best bet and easiest thing, your fastest right in person or Vita might take a little bit longer depending on volume, and then filing a text return via paper. It's going to take a little bit longer, but at least you're giving your participant a ton of options. Next slide please. Now, as case managers you're definitely going to want to address some common barriers that people might have. So for example, sometimes you're going to have to direct someone and really kind of guide them through creating an email address. It could be a permanent email address or a temporary address. Sometimes individuals might not have an actual physical address due to homelessness or some other type of concern. And so they might not want to use their address because of other types of concerns. And so you definitely want to ask your organization if you can be a point for people to receive their checks. Sometimes you can use your organization's address as a client's address. So definitely kind of knowing that. If you have a photo ID for someone in Chicago, sometimes people don't have photo IDs, you definitely want to be able to confirm the person's identity before helping them file their tax return, right. And so there are different ways to obtain a photo ID in Chicago. Just some way for you to prove that the person you are helping is the person they say they are. Also what to do if you have been falsely claimed as a dependent. Those are steps that you can take the organizations that can help you with this process. A lot of the time someone might have been falsely claimed as a dependent I think about you transitioning into adulthood. Or, you know, maybe individuals who don't normally file taxes, right. So then we're going to give you steps that you can take to have someone report that. And then of course there's always the case of identity theft and the AP payments right. So in the presentation we're going to talk a little bit about how to deal with that identity theft and who you can talk to so that you can report that. Next slide please. Oh, it's right here already. So someone do have their victim of identity theft so because identity that can happen a lot of different ways right if you want to report the identity theft you're definitely going to be wants to do a report on identity theft up or. I'm sorry, which is you know the FTC website for reporting identity theft. You can also report it directly to the IRS using this direct link right here. Sometimes the money was stolen by a tax preparer so there are different ways of reporting that again, you want to have your paperwork be able to try to prove that the money that you received is not the money that you were told you were going to receive and again using that FTC identity theft website to report it. And then again if you want to protect yourself or your participants want to protect themselves more from identity theft, or maybe they already experienced identity theft and they received a pin. The IRS will give what they call an identity protection pin which is an IP pin. It's a six digit number that's given to someone to really try to just prove it's another step of security to prove that this individual so they say they are, and really to prevent future identity theft. I know that some people receive their IP pin and they have a hard time remembering it, and then you go on the site and the site sometimes work sometimes doesn't. So I just want to let you all know to be patient and there are different ways to try to get that IP pin. So don't get frustrated, you know utilize the website utilize the phone number, but definitely help individuals kind of navigate that process because I feel like that this I've noticed personally it could become a barrier for someone to say you know what I don't want to deal with it. So definitely want to become familiar with at least this little portion. Next slide please. So, now that we've talked a little bit about these are the checks. This is how you order them. Now I would like to talk about some different updates in 2021 just related to checks and tax season in general. And everyone that EAP payments, aka stimulus checks are not taxable. Okay, that means that payments one, two and three are not going to be taxable. Can you. Next slide please. This is an EATC earned income tax credit and child tax credit CTC and look back provision that was put in for the 2021 tax season. So what they're recommending is that you have your 2019 and your 2020 your 2019 tax return available, because due to this new look back and if you earn less in 2020 that you did in 2019, you can use that number to calculate your EATC and sometimes that will result in a higher credit. Okay. And so again, how do we maximize the amount of money that individuals are going to get. Right. This is really what we're trying to do here. Let's maximize how much money our individuals get. Next slide please. I'm going to briefly introduce the child tax credit because then my colleague is going to talk a little bit more about that because this is definitely something you want to take advantage of. So, the child tax credit was expanded for 2021 and the IRS will actually start issuing advanced payments of that starting in July. All right. I don't want to give away too much information because let's let's say that that was a very exciting little tip. But really I would like to introduce our next presenter Gabriel Zuckerman from New America, who will be speaking a little bit more about the child tax credit updates. Thanks Andres. Hi everyone really happy to be here to talk about the child tax credit expansions this year. Next slide please. I think it's probably folks know the CTC has existed for some time. This, as of as of this current tax year of the latest year this was up to $2,000 that families can get per child. And there were a bunch of changes that passed in the rescue plan to make this both more money and money that folks can get sooner than they otherwise would have. The other was it was a significant expansion of the credit. The expansion was such that it now covers lower income families is a larger amount of money that covers older children than it previously did. And it also provides for advanced payment of the credit so instead of getting all this in the lump sum, when you file your taxes, you can get some of it throughout the year. And these are changes that all apply to tax year 2021. So that's, you know, that's this year those are the taxes that you file for in you know February or March 2022. So let's talk about all these in a little bit more detail. Next slide please. In terms of this, I mentioned the expansion and the lower income families. This is the larger amount of money is probably the headline that folks have heard that now this is going to be up to $3,600 for younger children and up to $3,000 for older children. I also want to call attention to the fact that previously families earning very little money got nothing at all and families earning, you know, earning some money but not earning war at middle class we're getting less than the full amount. Now, no matter what your income, no matter how low your income you're entitled to the full amount. So if you earn $0 you get that 3,600 for your young child or 3000 for an older child, unlike the older child tax credit where this faced in over over income. The other significant expansion. Next slide is that previously this was available for children under 17 which to say up to 16. Now it's under 18, I said up to 17. So for tax year 2021 that's this year. Any kid who's 17 or less as of the end of this year is eligible for this expanded child tax credit whereas previously they would have been one year younger. So that's what the money is. But then let's talk about I think the part that people are talking about even more, which is the advanced payments. Next slide. Yeah, so I under the normal child tax credit as before. It's a tax credit. When you file your tax return, you get the payment with your refund. What the rescue plan did is that it said, actually, some of that money that you would have gotten when you filed your return next February, March, April, whenever it might be. You can get some of that in monthly payments, starting this year to start in July 15 2021 families can start to get a child tax credit, and they will get up to half of it over the course of this year. And they will get the other half when they file their taxes for tax year 2021. Next year, so to make us all a little more concrete. So to the single mother of two young children, she's earning $50,000 she's entitled to the full child tax credit for the for those two kids that would total $7,200. So she'll get that in monthly checks starting in July. So the 15th of the month every month. This year, she'll get $600 on July 15 August 15 September 15 and so on and so forth. And then to get the remaining $3,600 that she's also entitled to she'll file her tax return sometime early next year, and get get the remainder. So what does this mean in practice. So next slide. What do families actually have to do to get these advanced payments this year, mostly they don't have to do anything. This works a lot like the economic impact payments the stimulus checks have this year. Which is that if the IRS has a tax return file, in this case a tax return from last year or this year, they will issue these payments automatically again just as they did for the economic impact payments. And as it's similar sex if you if someone didn't file either the last two years, they'll need to file a return. So I just went over a lot of the different ways they can do that. The one thing I'll add to that is that the IRS is launching a new version of what we all refer to as the so called non file or portal last year. It's kind of simplified form but you don't need to go through a full return used to a couple little things, just enough for them to issue this payment, they will have a version of that, which pays out the child tax credit pays out the AP three pays out the recovery credit which will launch later this month we just don't know exactly when yet. But bottom line is very similar to with the stimulus checks. If families haven't filed that to file a return to like, you know raise their hand up IRS again. And the only other thing that is a little tricky here is what a family did file. Again, either last year or this year, but their information is different than it was. So suppose they have a different bank account now suppose they didn't have direct deposit at all they were getting a check mailed to them and they moved. Suppose they had three kids but one went to live with their aunt, and so they only have two kids now. So families are supposed to tell the IRS about these changes the money doesn't go to the wrong place. In this case, this is a little bit of a tricky one though so there's going to be a tool called the CTC update portal, we hear what they're going to call it. The problem is that tool doesn't exist yet. It will at some point this month there will be a version of it. But that version won't yet let people do many of the things that they want to do, like change their bank account, like change their address, like change the number of children they have. All they'll be able to do when the thing first launches is actually go in and say no, no, actually don't send me the advance payments at all. I'll just claim it all at tax time next year. Those other things that people will need to do to change their information will be rolled out over the course of the summer. So at some point over the summer, they'll be able to change the bank account at some point over the summer they'll be able to say oh this kid moved out. Don't give me payments for that child. In the meantime, there's not actually a solution that IRS is offering. Now, people are protected if they get payments that are incorrect for some number of months. But the IRS has actually told people yet what they want folks to do, if people are supposed to change their circumstances, but haven't yet been able to. And we kind of hope that in the next two weeks they'll explain to folks what they're expecting them to do in the circumstance. I'll be the first to confess that's not a very satisfying answer for people who did have changed circumstances but that's the amount the IRS has said so far. But I do want to underscore that for most people, this is an issue for most people either they did file their information hasn't changed, they get automatic payments, or they didn't file yet, they have to file to get payments. It's for these people with kind of intermediate circumstances are waiting for guidance. Next slide please then is the last thing I'll throw up here is from the research we've done with families who are impacted. Just a couple of the misconceptions we were seeing come up better is worth noting here. The amount of tax credit, historically has required you to have earned income. And because it's a little bit like beer and income tax credit which also requires you to have earned income. There's a misconception that people who don't earn money don't get this. That's not correct. It's like the economic impact payment you don't need to have any earned income to get this money. If you have literal zero and income, you can still file a return you can still get it. The common misconception we see floating around is that people are getting other federal benefits like social security disability, like SSI, there's a misconception that they can't get it. That's also not true, they can get this benefit as well. And in both of these cases, there's again a misconception floating around that like maybe these people can't file tax returns. That's not true they can, these people can file a tax return, they should. There's also a misconception just about like what exactly this money is because again it feels kind of like the stimulus check. It's not the same thing as the stimulus check. By filing a return you'll end up establishing eligibility for both in most cases so we can kind of feel like it's part of it, but this is a separate program, the child tax credit it's not the same thing as the economic impact payment. Specifically at that point, while it only, this was only a one year expansion so far, the child tax credit is something that I think many people expect will get extended going forward is not just a COVID release measure. This is something that will most likely be a permanent future of the tax code, although to date, he changes have only been for 2021. So I'll pause there and I think we'll take any questions now there are about child tax credit or anything that folks need to know about it. I see some questions in the chat. Andres do you want to feel this question or I think this is more of a general thing than a CTC. So, yes Stephanie we're actually going to get to the majority of our questions at the end of the presentation. Andres actually has another commitment and has to leave the presentation early so if you all have questions specifically about the child tax credit provision right now is the best time to ask that as he is our in house expert on the child tax credit. But we will get to your question. So I'm sure there are no questions because oh here we go what happens to families that have that move and are getting sent checks. Yeah, this is a, this is a very good question. So under current law, they are, they are liable for those checks, which means that if the if there are checks. So suppose I deserve the money, but I moved. Suppose I'm supposed to get $7200 total this year until tax credit. Andres sent a bunch of checks to an address I don't have I never got the money. That's still under current law that's still my problem. Unfortunately, which means that when I then go next year to file and I go to claim the full amount. Well, we already, we already sent you half of it, like you're only getting half of it now. So that's a bit it's definitely an issue that there isn't giving guidance on what to do in the case that your payment information has changed or you've moved. The only thing that folks are kind of throwing around right now is that you can just say you know I don't send me the advanced payments that way like if they're going to the wrong place they're going to the wrong account. It's not going to be an issue I'll just claim all the money when I file next to because that's still an option for folks. But the best information to Iris has given us so far is that we're sending this money out you'll get the remainder next year. And it's kind of on families to try to raise their hands and do something about it, if that money is not actually getting to them. The one thing I should have mentioned that I didn't actually put in the slides is that the IRS does say sending letters out. The one that went out I believe this week and they're coming in a couple weeks, telling families to like start watching out for this money. It's not a cold comfort if you move and you don't get that letter either. But if people are still in the same address they will know this money started to come they will be able to look out for it. There's a question about who should use the nonfiler portal who should actually file tax return. So the nonfiler portal again is going to be a very similar version to the one that was around last year for economic and back payments. It's what it will do very easily is it'll let you get the third stimulus check the third economic and back payment. It'll help you get these advanced child tax credit payments. It will also have the option to let you claim the recovery rebate credits that Andreas was talking about. What it will not do is it will not let you get the earned income tax credit. And for certain people depending on how much earned income they have that could actually be a good amount of money. So if someone has, say $10,000 of earned income, if they're single or say 20,000 if they're married, they're eligible use this tool but they're leaving some of their earned income tax credit on the table by using it. On the other hand, if they have $100 of earned income, they're eligible for basically no earned income credit. And for them there's no reason not to use this tool. Gates there's another question in the question answer section from Christine. Follow up to that question the previous question that you had is there a payment trace type option for someone to pursue if those advanced payments were issued but never received. I, I assume that at some point they there will be I don't think this is the public payments yet unfortunately, but I think the it is worth noting that the child tax credit situation is a little bit different from the economic impact payments in that they're expecting that you will get the difference rather than that this is something that's paid out and not reconciled later. They do expect to see a reconciled, but in the case where the checks go to the wrong household. It's definitely possible that by filing time next year the IRS will have some guidance about payment trace about trying to figure this out. I see, sorry, I had the wrong window open so I was seeing other questions. What course of action can we take when a client ex partner payment children is dependent even though they're not under his care. So, the question here is about what to do if there's basically conflicting claims on the child so someone you have an ex partner who's claiming them, but the but back to the claim should be with the current parent. This is. So, the situation I believe that if they conflicting claims. This is subject to change I wouldn't take this one to the bank. If they are conflicting claims they're going to pay out part to each family, or they're going to reconcile it depending on how conflicting they are and pay out the right one. What I would say that you all should do in working with people is go ahead and file that claim. So like, if there was no, if this person has not filed any tax return, they can file a return now. If they did file a return, and now it's a matter of needing to update that. Eventually this update portal tool that I mentioned will allow them to go in and be like hey I have this child. That hasn't happened in time. This is something that I really have to reconcile when they get around to this during filing season next year. I have to apologize again for these questions these answers being unsatisfying we're doing our best to get the guidance out of the IRS because it's definitely a tricky situation. There's a question of campaign is be put on a net spend card for those who don't have bank accounts. Fortunately, this is a lot like economic impact payment where folks don't have the choice to pick how they are getting the payments. So the IRS said they will do direct deposit where they have a bank account file. If not, they will either be mailing a check or mailing a debit card. This is much as they did with economic impact payments as folks know some of those went out on debit cards, how they decide. I don't think anyone really knows they might be flipping coins back there. I think it's a matter of like capacity they will need a capacity to send out so many checks and so many cards. They're kind of complimenting, but I don't know if there's any pattern as to who gets a card and who gets a check. Something we're advocating for is that to give people this choice they know what to expect but in the short run, if there's no bank account on file, something will arrive in the mail either be a check or a card. I think as much as that one's much the same as with the economic impact. Great. Does anybody have any final questions for Gabriel for Gabe. I was apologize again for the lack of clarity on some of these points it's a new program and then like, I think we're folks are going to learn from it, Congress is going to hopefully extend it and put a lot of these fixes into future legislation so I'd say keep track of stuff you're seeing keep track of these confusing cases. So these questions are cases that I'm not sure folks that I really completely reckoned with yet stuff's going to come up. There will be the next filing season to reconcile this and get the money in those cases. And hopefully we'll get it all fixed going forward. So thank you all for the awesome work you do. Well, thank you Gabe I really appreciate you being here and helping give everyone information about the child text credit again this is a great resource for individuals. We want to make sure that people are getting the information so they can make the decision to get as much money as possible. Right. I know it's all a little tricky and Gabe talked about how the IRS you know we're still kind of pulling teeth to get clarity on those you know specific situations which we as case managers are constantly seeing our participants kind of deal with. And so we will be sharing hopefully that information with you all moving forward, depending on you know our ability to do so. Well, again we're going to feel the rest of the questions at the end of the presentation. But yeah for now, next slide. Okay great so I'm just going to continue with these updates. So I wanted to give just a little bit of updates on the AP three which was distributed earlier this year. So, as part of that American rescue plan signed on to law on March 11 of this year. We were eligible for a third stimulus check worth up to $1400 per individual and $1400 per eligible dependent. This was part of the 2000 we were all supposed to receive where we have an advanced payment of 600 from last year, and then the 1400 this year. Just some changes from the first two rounds. So the stimulus check phase is now happening a little bit more quickly. The income limits have changed a little bit so the limit is now 80 K for single filers 120 K for household head of household and 160 for married filing jointly. So again that threshold is just a little bit lower. However, a dependent can now be of any age to qualify for the taxpayer to get some additional stimulus money. And tax filers who don't have social security number can receive stimulus money for eligible dependence with social security numbers. And so that's another change that happened during AP three which means that more people are eligible to receive those funds. And this AP three was being issued automatically to people who filed again a tax return for 2019 and or 2020. And for those individuals receiving again the following benefits rate social security retirement SSDI survivors benefits SSI veterans benefits and rural retirement benefits. Next slide please. Now I would really like to introduce kind of like what are some options for participants and our clients to get the money and where they could get the money and we had the question about the net spend card, because some people are not banked. Obviously, you know, work in the financial coaching field we understand that there's lots of reasons why someone may or may not be banked right. So really, it also depends on the type of products that are out there right a lot of products are out there but they're not necessarily the best fit. So, a few tools that I have provided here for you, just to kind of help people navigate this conversation are, you know having a basic conversation what is needed to open a bank account and really helping participants gather that information whether it's traditional or alternative identification and opening deposit depending on the account and proof of address right all of these are things that could be barriers for some people to get a check a banking account. And so we've provided a kind of different little things that you can do to kind of alleviate those barriers. I also want to give you some tools to really have this conversation with participants you know a lot of the times. If you're in financial coaching you're working with a participant who might feel a little hesitant to get a bank account because you know maybe they had a bad experience with the other one. So helping them navigate questions why is it that you want this what is it you're looking for specifically kind of tailor it and personalize it a little more. CFPB which is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a bank and credit union checklist which really helps you have that conversation about what someone is looking for. Again, just to help see if this is a correct fit. And then of course there's the ways that you can use the web websites like nerd wallet and bank rate to kind of help compare items. Bank on Chicago is great they've really created opportunities to have low cost, safer banking options and someone right now is going to talk about it introduce her in a second next slide please. But before I do so, I just want to let you know that you know our participants are using a lot of different ways to obtain their money I remember when the first stimulus check was coming out. We had a chat time and all of these kind of mobile banking options and financial technology options started coming out and saying hey, get your check here. And that's great it's an alternative but you also want to make sure that we're telling our clients and participants like how comfortable are you using this item you know have you researched to site. Small shameless plug Heartland Lions does do a lot of financial education we have a workshop on all about financial technology. And again it's just really to help people think about you know how comfortable do you feel sharing your information is this option good for you or not. However, starting now, I would like to introduce Debbie Cortez, who is the bank on Chicago manager to speak a little bit more about bank on Chicago as well as the affordable banking options that they offer. Thank you, Andres, I am super excited to be here and to talk about a safe and affordable banking options because as we're talking about stimulus payments and CTC payments. We know the best way to obtain this money is to have a bank account to receive it faster so next slide please. So the benefits of having one of our bank on accounts are several savings you know we statistic show that 39% of Americans would have trouble coming up with $400 just to cover an emergency expense reduced fees by not having a bank account. We know that there's costly alternative financial services like pawn shops currency exchange which can cost families anywhere from $400 to $600 a year direct deposit allows individuals to receive the money quicker more securely and of course more conveniently. We've also seen for individuals that are interested in starting their own business when they don't have a personal checking account they tend not to open up a business account which kind of hurts these entrepreneurs and they end up having bad credit. They have no savings they end up paying employees with cash or underneath the table. And what we saw is that this also affected in not being eligible for PPP loans because they didn't have proof of having employees. The consumer friendly account, the biggest concern for individuals is for obtaining a bank account or fees we know that that is the number one reason. Trusting the bank account with your money and of course having a perception of not having enough money to bank successfully but here at bank on Chicago we have the answer to all of those issues. Next slide. So the great part of being a bank on certified account is that they have a minimum of three requirements that even to just be approved, or to be looked at to be a bank on account so they have to offer a $25 or less to open up an account. There's no NSF or overdraft fees this is something that they opt out of this is automatic, which is actually a big deal and it allows people to not overspend, or not have all these unnecessary fees, a fee of $5 or less, or $10 or less with three ways to be waived for the monthly fee, monthly maintenance fee. And of course offering free online bill pay which allows people to be able to pay their bills on time and not have any other late fees with anything else that they may owe. So we know that these bank fees are subject to change so we want to make sure that you click on the bank on Chicago link that is at the bottom of this slide. You can also look at bank standards which kind of shows all of the standards that are required but it's really an exciting program. So this is a slide that I created because one of the things I heard of it and I know I just kind of alluded to is. So here of individuals getting their stimulus payment they mentioned prepaid accounts and payroll cards and I personally didn't know a lot of information about payroll cards. So I decided to compare three really important comparisons which is a traditional bank account, a bank on account standards and prepaid payroll cards so although a lot of them have very similar opening requirements, you know some some of them are 25 or less some of them have no monthly fees. But one of the biggest difference that I see on here and I though FDIC ensured you know for the first two. What I see on here is that you don't have access to a banker and so you know if you don't get to talk to somebody about maybe you want to get a loan for a car maybe you're interested in buying a home and you wanted to know what is the process. And having a payroll card is not going to be able to do that because we do see that payroll cards are pretty popular and low income community so we want to steer people away from getting a prepaid payroll card and having a bank on account account with us. So these are all and I know it looks really tiny on your screen but we have 12 banks and we have really grown. They're all most of them are very large banks that you have seen. But the great thing is that if you're uncomfortable we know some people don't like a traditional bank. We two of them are credit units such as Great Lakes Credit Union as well as self help. And you can tell the next slide actually has more information on there. It's a grid that I created. Slide please. So although this looks really, really small, everyone will receive the presentation and the second column which is really important is the bank on account name. If you go let's say there you're trying to find a bank and let's say Bank of America and City are within a few blocks from you and you can look on here you can see what the minimum opening deposit is a monthly maintenance fee obviously no overdraft fees and then a non ATM fees and then perhaps you just you know hey I still want to know I'm still unsure if I want Bank of America or City you can click click on the link and you'll go directly to the website and get some additional information. More importantly, each individual account has a bank on account name it is not called Bank on Chicago so if you go in there they will have no idea what you're talking about so as you can see for Bank of America it's called safe balance so that's what you want to say when you go in there if you go to Cathay Bank you want to say it's the community checking account. So we just want to make sure that you get the right and the correct account for the one that you're looking for that is going to be more safe and portable. Oh, no I have one more. Okay, so another thing that we want to mention is that we've we've heard of a lot of individuals that also need personal loans so we did reach out to all of our financial institutions and ask them. What type of small doubt or loan alternatives that you have. We know that there's a lot of pawn shops and all of these other lenders that use really high interest rates and take advantage of the people in the community and we don't want to. We want don't want that to happen. So we also have the option of looking at all these individual types of loans for these various financial institutions that can also help not only with personal loans but also you know with mortgage loans and other types of loans so if you have any questions again the links that were on the previous page you can also go on the websites and determine and look for these individual of small dollar loan alternatives. Great. Thank you so much Debbie I really appreciate you sharing the great resource that is Bank on Chicago. Again, you know everyone will receive this information. And any questions for Debbie we're just going to wait until we're done with the presentation. So next slide please. We have a little bit of resources now. So the ladder of tax clinic so ladder up is an organization that does a lot of low income tax assistance here in the city. And you know more recently they're actually partnering with the city of Chicago I am going to type in a link in the chat. So we'll give you a lot of information about how ladder up is assisting Chicago residents just with these kind of tax things. If you look at the link it'll tell you you know that right now, you can actually start making or you could have started making appointments on June 1 for their upcoming summer session beginning July 21. And so if you want any kind of free tax services definitely use that resource, directing you back to our presentation they also offer a tax clinic, which is free representation, depending on income there is an intake form which you can fill out on the ladder up website, and you can also contact them directly at the following number provided there which again, we're going to give everyone at the end. Okay, so again just another resource for everybody. Another resource that the city of Chicago is offering in collaboration with heart and the lions is that we have a financial navigator program. This is basically program that was developed to help guide individuals experiencing hardships because of coven 19. And really what the financial navigators are doing is providing participants clients colors with very specific resources and details about how to overcome those hardships, right. So the way that this happens is that they, the individual or a case manager on behalf of the individual will submit a request form which you can find at that link, which has been nav.org slash Chicago. And based on that form, the participants will receive a call, and they will have 30 minute opportunity to discuss any kind of problems they might have with due to coven 19 with the financial navigator and receive a report with resources. Some of those things are housing issues, you know inability to pay kind of navigating this rental assistance that is now available. And maybe individuals needing a little bit of clarity on, you know what you can do if you're struggling with credit card debt or receiving a lot of cultural collectors, even accessing benefits and other financial concerns right. Our financial coaches have been extensively trained in this program and it's just a great resource for those individuals who might need a little bit more additional assistance. Okay, and next slide please. This is our main resource which I am going to give you a big plug for once again, even though this whole presentation is basically that. Please visit get my payment Illinois org get really familiar with the website, we have a ton of really great resources on there. You can see if you're eligible for the payment how to request it everything that we've done today exists on this website so again, use this as your main resource. Of course, all of us are available for follow up questions, but this is really a good one stop shop. And yes, can you please go to the next slide. And as Dominic mentioned earlier, the city of Chicago is exploring the possibility of micro grants and so you know, the government really would just wants to support individuals and getting their money and more money right as we're kind of promoting now the child tax credit. And so yes the county Bureau of Economic Development is considering funding some grants for community based organization so a lot of you partners who are in the call a lot of partners who may not be on the call. Really, it's to help individuals in suburban County, get those critical resources and so there is a short survey. There is a link which will be put into the chat. Right now. And yeah, please fill out the short survey you're going to get in multiple points you're going to get a copy here you're going to get that link in the chat right now. And this is going to be part of the follow up email if you're interested. Even if you're not definitely check out that link because it's going to help us gauge that interest and really kind of figure out how the city can support you all as organizations, you know facing clients every day. So we definitely want to hear, we want to get our voice heard this is where we want to let them know that we need that additional assistance alright so fill out that survey. And yes me again thank you so much for sharing that link I really appreciate it. And I think the next slide is questions. Alright, so this is our Q amp a area I would really just thank you for saying. If you're being interested in the work that we're doing. I do want to just introduce really quickly, our colleague Christine Chang from the get my payment on our coalition, who is going to be helping you know all of us answer these questions that you might have, whether it's related to recovery rebate credits bank on with Debbie. I'm sure that Peter might be able to field a question or two about this kind of upcoming grant opportunity. And yeah, this is a great opportunity for you all to ask any questions. And I think we had one in the slide, I think we had a Q amp a one. So why don't we start with that one. So, Alexandra read asked, I work with a lot of undocumented clients will file taxes with an item, because they do not have a social security number. Many have us it is in children dependence of the third EIP allows tax filers without an SSN to receive stimulus money on behalf of the pendants with SSNs. So specific advice as to how these individuals can make sure that they receive the stimulus they deserve for those dependence. So maybe Christine can help us answer that part of the question. And then Debbie can field the second part which is, is bank on accessible to undocumented individuals with an item instead of a social security number. Oh no, is there a way to give Christine permission to try to figure that out on our end while we're just the second question. Sure. Yeah, that's actually a really good question. I should have mentioned that while I was doing the presentation. Some of our financial institutions do accept it and so I actually have a much broader list that lists a whole lot of other options that you are able to I 10 passports military card you know there's like 1012 different ways so that's a good question you just have to go to the individual websites to the to see which ones are the ones that do accept that I have a list of all of them, but maybe when you can, if they save the questions and I can, I can certainly send the one pager that has you know what each one, which bank accepts the item so that way you know your client or your customer wouldn't know ahead of time. But it's a good question I'm glad you have and related to Hi this is Christine related to you know making sure that an item holder can receive the third stimulus check for any dependence who have SSNs. Again, kind of to what we were saying before the key is having that tax return on file because IRS is issuing EIP three meaning the $1400 stimulus checks, they're issuing it in large part based on texture 20 or texture 19 tax returns. So as long as that participant has a tax return listing those dependence, the IRS should know to pay out the appropriate number of those $1400 checks. Thank you Christine we also have a question from Senator Maddie says that the person received the first two stimulus checks but not the third and nothing changed. So what can participants do when this is the situation that happens because again IRS huge you know a lot of people so this is totally, totally happens. So Christine is there any suggestions. Yeah I think the, in my mind it's kind of similar to what Andres outlined earlier which is establishing did does the did the IRS know about me to issue me a $1400 payment and is it the case that there's an issued that hasn't been received, because then you're talking about a payment trace right if you know for sure the IRS knew about you to issue you the $1400 stimulus check, but you haven't received that payment. Well that sounds like a prime candidate for calling the IRS at the number that was listed on that earlier slide to request a payment trace. Now, if the IRS doesn't know about you because you don't have a 2020 or 2018 tax return on file, and you're not somebody who gets a benefit like Social Security SSI SSDI veterans benefits. Well then putting a 2020 tax return on file is what will put you on the radar for issuance of that third stimulus check. Thank you Christine. Does anybody have any additional questions. I'm also clarify I don't know if Christine, I didn't quite hear if Christine covered this but if there's if they just don't receive that third check, there will again then be the opportunity to claim it next year so there should be right is that correct. Am I correct in saying that Christine. The same way that the current recovery rebate credit that's available on a 2020 tax return exists for people to recover stimulus money they get from the previous year. There will also be a 2021 recovery rebate credit to claim any EIP three money that's not received in this current, you know calendar year 2021. Okay, thank you and I wanted to revisit something that Stephanie Hobson had mentioned in the chat. So, let's see one second. So regarding filing a 2020 tax return for the recovery rebate. This individual ran into some issues trying to help a person receiving SSI. When they tried to file online they received a message that they didn't qualify or have enough income to file with them. The reason was that they didn't have the 1099 form from SSI handy so that they guess so they basically guessed. They resorted to downloading the 1040 and mailing it in at that time the organizations that were offering support with filing were overwhelmed. And so this is what they felt they had to do. So what can we do if this happens again or it's good to go again or individuals who have a 1099 might not have it handy and they still want to file so that they can get the information to the IRS. So in the case of specifically supplemental security income SSI that is never taxable and the Social Security Administration does not even issue a 1099 form for SSI benefits because there's no in which those benefits are taxable so if it is truly a case where somebody only gets SSI, they do not need to report anything related to those benefits because they will never be taxable. Now, for somebody who is receiving a different kind of benefit from Social Security Administration if that's retirement survivors, disability. If that is their only source of income in a given tax year, none of those benefits are going to be taxable so according to our contact at the IRS, whether they report the 1099 benefits total or they don't have that 1099 to be able to report that figure. None of that money is going to be taxable so technically they don't have to even include it. And again and I tell clients who call us about this. It's not like you're trying to avoid paying income tax on some of your earnings, you do not owe income tax on those Social Security benefits. So somebody can opt to not report those because they would not be taxed on them in any version of this. Great, so thank you so much for answering that Stephanie I hope that answered your question. If not feel free to follow up in the chat. Senator Manny just wanted to follow up with their original. Can the slides be sent over. Yes, the slides will be sent over and you'll have all this information at your disposal so, you know, sit tightly. And then, John had a question in the chat. What size grant is the city considering in the microgrid loan program for nonprofits and are they close to launching. So maybe Peter can help us answer this question. I'll pass that off to to Dom. Again, we are we're the county. I know people kind of use it interchangeably with the city sometimes but just for clarity it's Cook County but Dom, do you want to, we're in the early goings of it but don't can can maybe get a little bit more information. Can you share the question again. The question was about the, the micro grants that we may be doing the amounts and timing and, and all of that. Yeah, thanks Pete. I mean, I feed like you said I think you captured a while we're sort of an exploratory stage here I think that's the impetus on the survey to understand. So we just may be out there. And that can help then help us gauge, you know what sort of size program were, we might be looking at, and, you know, we're in a moment when there is a healthy infusion of resources to combat coven and assist with the recovery so that we're interested in supporting, particularly if we see the interest out there so our intent would be to take a look at what comes in on the survey and follow up in pretty short order in some fashion so like Andre said encourage you to check that out and give us your thoughts. And there's a space in there, just a few short questions and some space in there for your, your comments as well. Please kind of share any thoughts or input you have on the topic and what you heard today. This is Megan doing thanks. Thanks. This is Megan doing basset from numeric I just want to flag a couple questions that are coming up in the chat. So, Stephanie Hobson has a follow up one and then I think there's a not maybe another piece of the question from Senator Maddie. So Stephanie is asking about whether or not in the situation she described if people should leave questions about income blank on the 1040. My understanding is that they should put a zero Christine is that correct. It depends on the situation that you're talking about if we're talking about a paper return that's being nailed by somebody who only has social security benefits or who has no income at all. We actually have a guide on the get my payment Illinois dot org website. There's a page called for nonprofit partners in the final section is for people who are working with individuals who face more barriers to getting their stimulus money. We have a specific handout that's a step by step guide about how you would fill out a paper 1040 for somebody who again only receive social security benefits or who had no income at all that outlines exactly which lines of the 1040 you that have to fill out before they know that tax return and just to make it easier I have actually put that link in the chat so you can access it right now. Just wanted to flag I don't know that we've answered. There's one thing in Senator Maddie's comment about the person being in their situation who received the first two but didn't receive the third and is on SSI and doesn't need to file. I just want to make sure we clear up any questions about that, because even if they don't need to file, they can file if they have not gotten their check so they could file next year to get their third check, if they don't get it this year. Correct. Christine. Yeah, I think the other thing to and gave actually spoke about this when he was talking about the relaunched non filers tool. So the IRS is going to make this non filers tool available sometime they said by July 1. More information I think is coming out soon from the IRS, but for as we understand it this tool is helpful not only for somebody who needs to let the IRS know that they need to look for the advance payments of the 2021 child tax credit, but per what Gabe was saying, this is helpful for somebody who needs to appear on the IRS is radar as being eligible for EIP three. So, so I think we definitely need to see a little bit more information from IRS about who is this non filers tool appropriate for. And if in fact somebody who is a non filer meaning they have no need to file, meaning no requirement but also, they wouldn't get a refund. That may still be somebody who is in a situation like you're describing where they just need to get a return on file so the IRS knows they're eligible for the third stimulus check because again the third check, because it wasn't authorized until 2021, you would not be claiming the 1400 as the recovery rebate credit on a 2020 tax return. So in essence, that return from that person is a $0 return there's no just gross income there's no refund there's no tax due ordinarily you can't e file that kind of a return, but this non filers tool that IRS is relaunching could very well be the way that that person gets an electronically filed return to the IRS. I think that's a great point thanks Christine for bringing that up and I think that if there are other people that were helping who have, you know, similar situation when they are, you know, basically know or very low income or no income, you know, such as someone who's receiving SSI that that tool should be a good option for them to receive that third payment. But as you say we're waiting on a little bit of information. Any final questions. I know we still have a few minutes. If not, we can absolutely share our contact information so you can reach out to us. Okay. Maybe Shannon or Normada can help share our last slide. So again I just want to say thank you all for being here I really appreciate you know just being open to this information. I'm definitely very excited to just be able to share these resources and these tools for you all to really help up these participants and these clients get as much as they deserve right. And so you have my contact information, which, again, me and Christine will be fielding those questions and if you have questions that are specific to bank on. We also have Debbie Cortez's information here. Again, just want to promote the website one last time. As you know Christine just mentioned there are really specific tools within that website to help you with all of these kind of more difficult things like navigating an actual 1040 form in person, navigating software, things that might intimidate individuals we just want to make it as easy as possible and we want to give you all the tools to support your clients as much as you can. Thank you all for being here. Thank you to see if Chicago County thank you for everyone for you know collaborating and helping us host this great event. And we look forward to hearing from you soon please do not forget. I'm going to promote this, please please do not forget to fill out that survey. If you want the money Dominic needs to see that survey so definitely let you know, make sure that you all are expressing that interest. And thank you all for being here.