BOISE, Idaho — People who had their coronavirus relief checks wrongly denied or seized because they were behind bars now have a few more days to apply to receive the money.
The Internal Revenue Service has extended the application deadline 15 days to Oct. 30 in response to a ruling by a federal judge who said the payments couldn’t be denied based solely on someone’s incarceration status. That has prison officials scrambling to make sure incarcerated people know they can qualify for the funds.
In Idaho, prison officials followed IRS guidance earlier this year and seized the payments from 48 inmates. Now the prison officials are working to tell those and other inmates they can get the money after all.
