Up to a million taxpayers will receive a “special” year-end gift from the IRS as the agency deposits a total of $2.4 billion in pandemic-era stimulus checks directly into their bank deposits.

The automatic deposits will be issued “later this month” and should arrive by the end of January 2025 “in most cases,” the agency said. They will be paid to eligible taxpayers who did not claim the Refund Credit for 2021 on their tax returns for themselves and their dependents, worth up to $1,400 per individual.

“When we looked at our internal data, we found that one million taxpayers missed taking advantage of this complex credit even though they were actually eligible,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “To minimize hassle and make this money available to eligible taxpayers, we are making these payments automatically.”

Exactly how much each taxpayer receives depends on a number of factors, including their income, whether they are married or not, and the total number of dependents. For example, the withdrawal amount was phased out for individuals earning an adjusted gross income (AGI) of more than $75,000 and for couples earning an AGI of more than $150,000. A married couple with three children and an AGI of $149,000 would receive $5,600.

The IRS will send these direct deposits to eligible taxpayers who did not receive the original payment and did not claim it on their 2021 tax return. Recipients should not have to take any action to receive the payments. If the IRS does not have the taxpayer’s bank account information (based on their 2023 tax return), it will send the payment by check in the mail.

In the early days of the pandemic, the federal government issued three different economic impact payments to help struggling individuals and families. The first value was up to $1,200 per applicant and $500 per dependent. the second was worth up to $600 per applicant and $600 per dependent; and the third was worth $1,400 per filer and $1,400 per dependent.

The third payment is part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American stimulus plan, which went into effect in March 2021. In total, American households received more than 476 million pandemic relief payments worth $814 billion.

Each iteration of the stimulus check differed in who was eligible to receive it, although it generally targeted low- and middle-income individuals and households. The third check expanded the definition of dependents from the first and second rounds of payments to include college students, disabled adults and older Americans.

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