the stimulus bill tasked the IRS to be the agency to send the checks out and the bill specified two criteria to receive the money:
1. you MUST have a social security number
2. you MUST verify your AGI is less than $75,000
Secondly, the bill provides for direct deposit based on that information having been provided to the IRS via income tax returns, otherwise, hard copy checks will have to be sent out, which will take many more weeks than direct deposit
Thus, the IRS will first take a look at 2019 returns to obtain the necessary information, and then look back at 2018 returns if the 2019 return is available ...
So, until the IRS can develop brand new, alternative methods beside income tax returns, which the IRS has said they have started to do and said it will take a few weeks to get that all set up, IF someone wants their check ASAP, which means direct deposit, and they have heretofore NOT had to file a tax return and/or provide direct deposit information, the ONLY way to do that right now is to submit a simple 1040EZ tax return with direct deposit information, even if taxes are not owed or refunds are not due ... otherwise, there will be a long wait ... this is not because the IRS is incompetent buffoons, but because the stimulus bill dumped all this on them overnight ...
There is no 1040EZ anymore and it was never for taxpayers over 65. Perhaps you have not had a lot of dealings with senior citizens. Sure, some can find the form online, print and mail it. I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about the sweet old lady I see in my office with about 1k a month in socsec and maybe 500 from a modest pension. They are not required to file and I will help them stop withholding so they have enough to live on. These are the people who can’t fight the borders, who are one step beyond eating cat food. The IRS knows exactly how much income they have - easily the postcard return types. Their husband is dead and buried years ago. Now they don’t know what to do and you bet the robocalls will start, here, let me help you with that. Socsec knows their Bank account. It’s simple for ssa to issue payments, send a file to the IRS and they mark them already paid.