Treasury Distributes 22.18 Million More Tax Rebates

The Treasury Department paid out an additional 22.18 million economic stimulus payments, or tax rebates, to American households last week, for a total of $20.138 billion.

That's on top of the 7.7 million payments made in the first week of distributing the rebates (see Treasury Sends 7.7 Million Tax Rebates in First Week). So far, the Treasury Department has distributed 29.888 million stimulus payments totaling $27.230 billion.

The payments were made via direct deposit to taxpayers whose returns were processed by April 15. However, some returns may take longer to process, the IRS has noted, which could hold up both refunds and stimulus payments.

The Treasury Department plans to begin distributing the stimulus payments via paper check starting the week of May 16 to taxpayers who didn't elect to have their refunds directly deposited to their bank accounts.