In the past few weeks we’ve written a lot about the 2020 stimulus check, also called the economic impact payment by the government.
Stimulus payments have now started to go out, and a lot of people have started to receive their $1,200 direct deposit payments as individuals, and $2,400 payments as a couples (in addition to $500 for each eligible child).
While many have started to receive their payments in their bank account, and some others are even starting to talk about whether there will be a second stimulus check, others like myself have been left wondering why they haven’t received their payment.
Is there some sort of holdup? Am I not eligible to receive the payment after all?
Thankfully, the IRS released a “Get My Payment” tool on their site for people to check the status of their economic impact payment, and if they haven’t already supplied it, to give the government their direct deposit information.
For people like me, who didn’t get a refund in the past couple of years (I owed money), a tool was needed so we could enter our bank account information so we could get a direct deposit, instead of waiting weeks or months for a physical check.
Get My Payment Tool Payment Status And Errors
A lot of people rushed to use the “Get My Payment” tool when the IRS released it a few weeks ago, and for some, they were able to enter their bank account information so that the IRS could send them a direct deposit.
Others, however, were running into a host of errors that caused them to either get locked out of the tool for 24 hours, or that gave them confusing feedback making it seem like the IRS thought they might not be eligible for a economic impact payment.
There were three payment statuses that were shown when people use the tool.
Payment Status – Payment Processed OR Payment Not Processed
For some people when they checked their payment status they received a status that said either their payment had been processed, and it was sent by direct deposit or mail, or a second status that said they were eligible, but that their payment hadn’t been processed yet and a payment date was not available.
Need More Information
This status says that people are eligible for a payment, but that the IRS doesn’t have the taxpayer’s direct deposit information. Once the taxpayer confirms their identity, they are able to enter their direct deposit information.
Once their information is accepted they’ll get a confirmation saying that their payment would be direct deposited into their account.
Payment Status Not Available
A “Payment Status Not Available” status message showed up for a lot of people who tried to get the status of their economic impact payment.
The message was supposed to be given when the IRS was not able to determine if the taxpayer was eligible for a payment because they didn’t have the taxpayer’s data yet. It could also be shown if the taxpayer wasn’t eligible for a payment for some reason.
Typically you should get this message if you hadn’t yet filed your 2018 or 2019 taxes.
The problem was that a lot of people were getting this message despite having filed 2018 or 2019 taxes, and knowing that they should have been eligible for the stimulus check.
Big Data Update On The Get My Payment Tool
After a taxpayer outcry at how many people were getting the “Payment Status Not Available” error, the IRS sent out guidance that this error can happen when the tool doesn’t yet have the data for a taxpayer, even for those who have filed, or who are eligible. They also released a Get My Payment FAQ answering a lot of questions that people had about the tool and status messages.
They clarified that they are continually adding taxpayer data to the tool to allow more eligible people to use it.
The data updates are happening on a daily basis, and they recommend to check back once a day to see if your data has been added to the tool yet.
Less than a week ago a large number people reported that they were now able to use the tool and were no longer getting the error message.
We suspect that the IRS had added and updated a larger portion of the data this week due to the fact that paper stimulus checks started going out around the 24th of April.
Keep Trying To Add Your Direct Deposit Information Until Successful
I was personally getting the “Payment Status Not Available” status message despite knowing that we were eligible based on our 2018 return.
After seeing that other people were having success now and were able to get in and update their direct deposit information, I went back and tried to update our information as well.
This time after entering all of my verification information, the tool allowed me in and told me that I was eligible for the payment. It gave me the option to enter my direct deposit information. I entered all of my bank information and it gave me a confirmation that my account was accepted, and that the payment would be deposited into my account.
Now when I go back to the tool looking for an update I get a new message. It says that I’m eligible for the payment, and that it will be deposited into my account. It also confirms that a letter will be sent in the mail to confirm the payment.
Once the payment has gone through the status message will change to a confirmation message stating that my payment has been sent, and how.
What If The Get My Payment Tool Still Doesn’t Work?
What happens if the tool still doesn’t work for you and you can’t enter your direct deposit information? Will you still get your stimulus check?
It appears that for those who aren’t able to get into the tool, but who are eligible for a payment, if the taxpayer can’t enter their direct deposit information via the tool in time, they will end up getting a paper check.
When Are Paper Checks Going Out?
When are paper checks going out?
The IRS announced that the checks are being sent out in order with those with the lowest incomes getting the checks first.
- Earn $10,000 or less – April 24th
- Earn $20,000 or less – May 1st
- Earn $30,000 or less – May 8th
- Earn $40,000 or less – May 15th
- Earn $50,000 or less – May 22nd
- Earn $60,000 or less – May 29th
- Earn $70,000 or less – June 5th
- Earn $80,000 or less – June 12th
- Earn $90,000 or less – June 19th
- Earn $100,000 or less – June 26th
- Earn $110,000 or less – July 3rd
- Earn $120,000 or less – July 10th
- Earn $130,000 or less – July 17th
- Earn $140,000 or less – July 24th
- Earn $150,000 or less – July 31st
- Earn $160,000 or less -August 7th
- Earn $170,000 or less – August 14th
- Earn $180,000 or less – August 21st
- Earn $190,000 or less – August 28th
- Earn $198,000 or less – September 4th
If your check isn’t going to be sent out right away, you’re probably still better off entering your direct deposit information via the “Get My Payment” tool, as you’ll likely receive the payment faster than if you didn’t.
Otherwise, if you have an income that is on the lower end of the above scale, your check may already be in process. Stay tuned to the tool for updates!
IRS Scenarios For How To Use The Get My Payment Tool
The IRS has recently released a new page on their site to help clear up additional confusion about who can use the “Get My Payment” tool, and what it will do for them.
For example, it says that if you filed a 2018 or 2019 return and included direct deposit information to receive a tax refund, you can only use the “Get My Payment” tool to track the status of your payment. You can’t update the account information since you already supplied it with your return.
If you’re like me and you owed money in 2018 or 2019, you can use the tool to track your payment status and to add direct deposit information.
For others who were not required to file taxes (because they didn’t earn enough) and don’t receive Social Security, Veteran’s benefits or Railroad Retirement benefits, they will have to use the Non-Filers tool to supply their basic information to the IRS. Once they have done that they can use the “Get My Payment” tool to track the status of their payment.
Did you have problems with the “Get My Payment” tool? If so, are you able to enter your information or track your payment status now after the recent big data update?
Yes! They did fix it and I was able to input my info. But I still had a weird situation where I had to try a few guesses to get it to work. If you are paying quarterly like I was in 2018 tax year, then usually you end up the year with an amount paid above what you owed. But rather than get it as a refund I think, like me, most people just have that amount applied to their first quarterly payment of the next tax year. In that case it is hard to know how to answer the questions on the “get my payment” site. First it asks you if you owed money or if you had a refund. In my case I said I had a refund. Then it asks how much? Well, I tried to enter the $1,852 that I had applied to my first 2019 quarterly payment because that would have been the refund amount if I had asked to get it sent to me. But that failed when I tried it. So I tried “zero” as the amount refunded (since I applied the refund to the next years taxes and didn’t get it sent to me) and that worked. They should have had “amount applied to 2019 taxes” as one of the answer options, but they didn’t. Anyway that worked and let me enter my bank information.
That’s interesting, thanks for alerting us to that particular situation. I think you’re right, they likely should have had the third option for situations like yours where you were due a refund, but applied it to the next year’s taxes. I suppose in their mind you didn’t get a refund since it was applied to the next year, but it does make it confusing. I pay quarterly taxes as well, although I’ve ended up owing the past few years so I didn’t run into this.
Here’s the other side. After following what steveark says said, carefully, it returned unsuccessful – again. Appreciate the guide though and do agree that a third option would really have cut some of the frustration. Thanks to all – and enjoy the funds!