The US tax authorities have announced that special payments of $1,400 will be made to 1 million taxpayers who did not claim under the 2021 recovery rebate program. This could be a final installment of pandemic-era stimulus checks.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said in a statement that the payouts were a “special step” after a review found that many eligible taxpayers received no or more Economic Impact Payments (EIP), also known as stimulus payments.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, there were three rounds of EIP payments to U.S. citizens during the pandemic totaling $4,500, amounting to approximately $931 billion between April 2020 and December 2021.

The estimated amount of outgoing payments will be approximately $2.4 billion.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act of 2020 provided the largest amount of funding, at $1.8 trillion, to address both the health crisis and the resulting economic fallout from the pandemic.

But trillions more were spent through other government programs and Treasury Department efforts.

The IRS said in a statement that no action is required for eligible taxpayers to receive these payments and that the payments will arrive later this month or by the end of January and will be made via direct deposit or check.

“The IRS continues to work hard to make improvements and help taxpayers,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “These payments are an example of our commitment to going the extra mile for taxpayers.”

The delayed payouts for care for about a million Americans come as federal authorities continue to track down billions of dollars in Covid-19 relief funds that may have been fraudulently obtained.

An April report from the Justice Department’s Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement Taskforce (CFETF) said criminal charges were filed against more than 3,500 defendants for losses of more than $2 billion and more than $1.4 billion was seized or seized had been withheld.

“Our work is not finished,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “We will continue our efforts to investigate and prosecute pandemic fraud and recover the assets stolen from American taxpayers.”

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco called for an extension of the statute of limitations “so that prosecutors can recover hundreds of millions of dollars more in fraud proceeds, bring remaining offenders to justice, and dismantle criminal networks that continue to victimize our citizens.”