BATON ROUGE – According to The Louisiana Department of Revenue, nearly 160,000 Louisiana residents could be eligible for unclaimed federal COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments. 

The deadline to register a claim on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website is Oct. 15, 2020.

The IRS is mailing letters to more than 8.8 million Americans who could be eligible for unclaimed stimulus payments that the federal government began distributing in March to relieve the financial stress on families affected by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The payments are $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for married couples, with an additional $500 per dependent.

According to the IRS, 159,575 Louisiana residents will receive letters encouraging them to register by Oct. 15. 

The majority are people who are not required to file federal income tax returns due to low incomes based on data reported to the IRS.

Eligible residents are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and qualifying resident aliens who meet the income requirements, have a valid Social Security Number and cannot be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer. 

Taxpayers not registering by the Oct. 15 deadline will have to wait until 2021 to claim their stimulus payment as a refund on their 2020 tax return. 

Visit IRS.gov/coronavirus for more information.