US Stimulus Checks Received in Austria

By M.G. Alison. First Posted: Sep 10, 2020 02:13 AM EDT

U.S. stimulus checks are received in Austria, which surprised many Austrians who initially thought they were being scammed.

The U.S. stimulus checks were part of the $2 trillion first round of stimulus payments supposedly only for U.S. citizens and U.S. resident aliens due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The intent of the U.S. stimulus checks, which were given on top of unemployment benefits, was to give consumers money to spend and stimulate the U.S. economy despite the pandemic.

According to a report on The Washington Post, 73-year-old Austrian pensioner Manfred Barnreiter told ORF, a public broadcaster, that he initially believed that the U.S. stimulus checks he received were part of a sophisticated fraud scheme.

As his wife also received one, they went to the bank, and they were told that the checks would be verified. Three days later, the money was already in their bank account.

The Barnreiters are not U.S. citizens, and neither they are U.S. residents. But Barnreiter did work in the U.S. back in the 1960s, and he is still receiving a small pension from that short period of employment.

At least three locals banks in Austria confirmed they had cashed 200 U.S. stimulus checks by Wednesday, September 9.

They cannot say, though, how many of the Austrians who cashed the checks were not eligible for the U.S. stimulus checks or how many were cashed by U.S. citizens who are eligible but residing abroad.

Last month, the National Public Radio reported that U.S. stimulus checks were erroneously sent to thousands of foreign workers who came to the U.S. on a temporary working visa.

Some of these U.S. stimulus checks were received in Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Nigeria, China, and India. Some received checks while some had the money directly deposited to their accounts.

According to tax experts and government officials, this mistake is caused by foreign workers who incorrectly filed their tax returns that make them appear as residing in the U.S.

This is whether they did it on purpose or unintentionally, but some of these workers claimed they were not aware that they filed their tax returns incorrectly until they received the U.S. stimulus checks.

However, some of them are now trying to correct their returns because they do not want to get in trouble with the U.S. government and put their visa status in jeopardy.

Aside from foreign workers, some of the U.S. stimulus checks amounting to $1.6 billion were also sent to dead people in the U.S. back in May.

According to a Latin Post report, the treasury department had recovered $1 billion or about 70 percent of that amount.

Under the CARES Act terms, dead people were not excluded from receiving the U.S. stimulus checks. Thus, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) included their names on the list.

Later, however, both the IRS and the Treasury determined that the people who had died already when the payments were made are no longer eligible to receive the U.S. stimulus checks.