Japanese pensioners with U.S. stimulus checks go down to Tokyo banks
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Pensioners at Tokyo Bank Branch have bent over backing pensioners trying to collect Joe Biden’s stimulus checks The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has sent thousands of payments to Japanese citizens as a result of an apparent mistake.
An official at one of Japan’s largest banks said the problem was causing “crowds and confusion” in some branches around Tokyo as workers tried to control unknown foreign currencies.
Payments were sent to Japanese retirees who worked in the U.S., highlighting Biden’s enormous scale $ 1.9 million stimulus and the risk of dam waste to get money out the door.
Payments to non-foreign recipients, including in many countries beyond Japan, were a problem in previous stimulus rounds Donald Trump overcame it.
However, Japan’s last recipients did not get a check in 2020, suggesting that the problem of poor payments could be even bigger this time around.
“I felt grateful and I thought America was amazing,” said a pensioner from a Japanese trading house who worked in the U.S. in the 1970s. He received a $ 1,400 stimulus check This month.
The following week they also received checks and spent time exchanging texts and calls with friends. His two friends were able to get the checks from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, while another managed to make them at the central branch in Mizuho, Tokyo.
But when he consulted with the local Mizuho branch, he was told that he had to confirm his right before receiving the money so that he could think about opening a bank account at SMFG.
A few days later, he saw media reports suggesting that he and his wife were not eligible for the checks they received. “It ended as a short dream,” he said. “Now my biggest interest is what will happen to those who have already received the money.”
Two out of three megabankers in Japan continue to charge checks to customers who already have an account, saying they are eligible. Banks asked not to be named for fear of creating additional demand in the branches.
Koh Fujimoto, a CDH accountant in Chicago who specializes in advising Japanese people with cross-border tax problems, said only U.S. citizens (who have income taxes around the world) and foreigners living in the U.S. can check checks. “There is income qualification“, He added.
Some Japanese receive a small pension from the U.S. after paying taxes on work duties before signing a social security pact in 2005. Fujimoto said the IRS may not be able to differentiate it from low-income U.S. pensioners. tax return.
If large sums of money are lost, Fujimoto said the U.S. would likely take action, but added that it is difficult for elderly foreign nationals to pay after the checks are cashed. However, “people who are not qualified should get their money back,” he said.
The IRS confirmed that they were “non-resident aliens.” it is not appropriate and checks should be sent to an address in Austin, Texas.
According to Treasury the department’s chief auditor, Trump received $ 1,200 in first spring payments in the spring of 2020 for $ 34,808 in checks for foreign addresses, both beneficial and unacceptable recipients.
The U.S. Treasury did not provide figures for this year’s payments and otherwise declined to comment.
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