After a law passed earlier this week that would give low-income families and individuals some much needed help, Maryland has processed most of the stimulus payments.
Gov. Larry Hogan signed the bipartisan RELIEF Act into law Monday, which would give low-income taxpayers who filed for the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2019 direct stimulus payments of $500 for families and $300 for individuals. More than 422,000 Marylanders are eligible to receive these funds.
State Comptroller Peter Franchot said Friday that 98% of payments have been processed.
“This has been a herculean effort by our staff who diligently prepared for weeks to get almost all RELIEF Act funds quickly distributed to Marylanders who need it most, despite this week’s weather,” Franchot said.
Specifically, 266,985 electronic payments with a value of $113.6 million have been transmitted to banks for deposit into individuals’ accounts, and 148,972 paper checks, totaling $61.7 million, have also been processed, according to a news release from the Maryland Comptroller’s Office.
The RELIEF Act Stimulus website received 450,000 visits in the last four days, and staff responded to hundreds of social media inquiries. The dedicated hotline also got some 14,000 phone calls, and staff answered some 4,400 emails.
In addition, the comptroller’s office has processed nearly 160,000 tax returns and issued $17 million in refunds since Feb. 12. More than 3.2 million individual returns are processed annually.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
