Claim about new $1,390 stimulus checks fantasy

In August 2025, a rumor spread online of the IRS distributing a new round of stimulus checks to Americans. Social media posts claimed that IRS officials “denied rumors of a $2,000 August payout,” allegedly confirming instead that $1,390 stimulus checks would roll out in late summer.

The claim spread through multiple (archived) posts (archived) on X as well as on TikTok (archived) and Facebook (archived). Snopes readers submitted questions by email asking if the claim was true, and people searched for information about the claim on our website.

The claim was false. As of this writing, neither the IRS nor the U.S. Treasury Department had confirmed there will be new stimulus checks in 2025. Furthermore, the IRS would not be able to issue such checks without Congress passing a law to authorize the decision.

An IRS spokesperson confirmed over email that reports of a new stimulus check were false and pointed to a post from the IRS X account (archived) warning of stimulus check scams.

New stimulus checks can only be distributed if Congress passes a law authorizing them. As of Aug. 18, 2025, Congress had not passed a law authorizing new stimulus checks for 2025.

Earlier in 2025, the IRS distributed stimulus checks from 2021 to 1 million taxpayers who had not yet received their payments.

On July 28, 2025, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a bill that would distribute stimulus checks billed as “tariff rebates.” As of Aug. 18, the last action on the bill was that it was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance on July 28.

In February, U.S. President Donald Trump backed an idea to distribute “DOGE dividends” — stimulus checks based on the amount of money the administration claimed was saved through cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency.

However, neither Hawley’s bill nor the DOGE dividend idea were close to becoming law at the time the August 2025 rumors of new stimulus checks were spreading.

This wasn’t the first false rumor about a stimulus check we’ve investigated. In 2024, we debunked a similar claim that the IRS was issuing $8,700 stimulus checks to qualifying Americans.