Don't Mess With Taxes

Photo by Alexander Mils from Pexels

Have you received your COVID-19 economic relief payment? The Internal Revenue Service says that 88.1 million taxpayers have.

Those payments, which were delivered as of April 17, come to a total of almost $158 billion.

Both the total checks and the overall amount are worthy of this week's early By the Numbers recognition.

Timely turnaround: The coronavirus relief payments were authorized as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that was enacted on March 27.

That means that in three weeks, the IRS is more than halfway through the 150 million plus payments it's been tasked with distributing.

Kudos to the IRS on this accomplishment, especially since it was a job that came out of the blue, in the middle of the annual tax season as the cash-strapped agency is dealing with less than ideal technology and most of its staff is working from home because of the pandemic.

I know I've whined about the payment tracking process, but I'm happy to give credit when and where it's due.

Tracking your payment…or not: But, and you knew COVID-cranky me was going to have a but here, the IRS still has some work to do, particularly when it comes to the aforementioned issue of folks trying find out about their COVID-19 money using the agency's Get My Payment tool.

Despite an early assurance that it was working fine, it still isn't for many folks. Yes, I'm still one of the grumblers

A cursory run through #TaxTwitter underscores the problems. They range from closed direct deposit accounts to offset issues to no way (so far) to account for refunds that are applied to the next year's tax liability.

Word in the tax community is that the IRS will be doing maintenance this weekend. Hope is that this work will fix at least some of the remaining Get My Payment glitches.

In the meantime, those of use who've yet to get our payments wait, some more patiently than others.

Most payments automatic: The good news is that even if you're having trouble finding out just where your payment is, it's likely in the delivery queue.

If you filed a tax return in 2018 or 2019 your payment should be delivered automatically. The same is true for folks who didn't recently file a tax return, but who received Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits (SSDI), Railroad Retirement benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Veterans Affairs benefits.

In these cases, if you got a tax refund directly deposited or get your government benefits sent directly to your bank, that's how your COVID-19 economic relief payment will arrive.

"Tens of millions of people across the country are receiving these payments, and millions more are on the way," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in announcing the latest delivery data.

Some really are in the mail: If, however, you rely on the U.S. Postal Service for benefits or your tax refund, your coronavirus payment also will be a paper check snail mailed to your on-record address.

Treasury (and some media and anecdotal online reports) say that some paper checks went into the mail today, April 24. So keep watching that curbside mailbox. But don't confront your postal carrier; social distancing and civility and all that!

You also can give the online Get My Payment tracker another whirl to see if your data has been updated. Or, if you're like me, if it will tell you anything at all. Thinking now that maybe I should have written more IRS/Treasury-positive blog posts.

Where the money's gone: Meanwhile, as you/we wait for word from your/our bank that your/our COVID-19 economic relief payment is there or run to your/our curbside box every time the mail is dropped off, you/we can check out some other numbers.

The table below shows the IRS tally of delivered coronavirus stimulus payments by state (and to taxpayers abroad living in U.S. territories) as of April 17.

Here's hoping your/our amount is added to this chart soon.

Advertisements