@MikeB_CPA 

Criticizing IRS is like going to a prize fight and booing the boxer who gets knocked down because he has one arm tied behind his back. Part of our professionalism as tax preparers should be educating clients that IRS does only what Congress tells it, with only the money that Congress gives it.

We shouldn’t use the word “stimulus” because it’s not in the law and the purpose of the bank liquidity payments is different from the program where the term appeared 12 years ago. The President was against it before he was for it – he favored instead a payroll tax cut, and there’s some of that but not enough to matter. We shouldn’t use the word “loan” even if it is in the PPP scheme because these are really grants. When was the last time you heard someone say they hope to pay off their loan early?

If this were malaria the $1,200 checks could be used to swat mosquitoes. But it’s transmitted when people sit next to each other in small cubicles, answering phone calls from the greedy who want to know why they have to wait two more weeks for money that didn’t exist two months ago. Let’s point out to clients that it will be years before life gets back to what we remember before the Covid Depression.