The IRS tweeted that there has been more than 88 million Economic Impact Payments issued to date and more payments continue to be issued on a weekly basis. Even so, there are still people who have not received a payment. If you have filed either your 2018 or 2019 tax return and it has been processed, the IRS had created a tool to that allows you to check the status of when you will receive your payment. But, up until the end of last week, the tool had not been working. The IRS received much criticism for publishing and announcing a tool that was inoperable. I can happily say that the tool should now be working as it was intended. Starting April 23rd and through the morning of April 25th, the IRS conducted planned outages to shut down the tool for maintenance. As early as the morning of April 24th, users were immediately able to see improvements. The tool should now more accurately indicate if you are or are not eligible for the payment and when you will be receiving your payment. Many who continued to get the “Payment Status Not Available” message may receive a different message such as when to expect your check or a page asking for your bank information for a direct deposit, for example.
How to access the “Get My Payment” tool & track your stimulus check.
- Go to the IRS Get My Payment web page.
- Click the blue ‘Get My Payment’ link.
- Click ‘OK’ for Authorized Use.
- This should take you to the Get My Payment page asking you to enter the following personal information: Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Tax ID Number (ITIN)*, Date of Birth, Street Address and ZIP Code.
*Note that although, “you can access Get My Payment using an ITIN, in most cases, the law does not allow an Economic Impact Payment (EIP) for individuals who filed a return using an ITIN. The only exception is when two spouses file a joint tax return and either spouse is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces at any time during the taxable year, in which case only one spouse needs to have a valid SSN.” (see Accessing Get My Payment on the IRS website)
- Click on ‘Continue’.
- The next screen should give you a ‘Payment Status’.
- If you are eligible for the payment you will be routed to the ‘Need More Information’ page. Here you will have the option of adding bank information for direct deposit, if you do not have a bank on record, or exiting the page, to opt out of direct deposit and receive a paper check.
*If choosing to add a bank, you will be directed to the ‘Additional Verification Information’ page. Follow this link to learn what information is required to set up direct deposit.
- Alternatively, you may see the ‘Payment Status Not Available’ message and unable to enter bank information.
What if I still get the “Payment Status Not Available”?
Even after the updates to the ‘Get My Payment’ tool have been made, there is the possibility that you may still get a ‘Payment Status Not Available’ message. This is a possible 2nd status that will show up instead of ‘Need More Information’ when clicking on ‘Continue’ after entering your personal information. There are a few reasons why you may still see this message instead of ‘Need More Information’. As of this morning, April 26th, the IRS updated its FAQ page and lists the following reasons that you may still receive this message:
- You are required to file a tax return, but:
-
- We haven’t finished processing your 2019 return
- The application doesn’t yet have your data; we’re working on adding more data to allow more people to use it.
- You don’t usually file a return, and:
-
- You used Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info Here but we haven’t processed your entry yet
- You receive SSI or VA benefits; information has not been loaded onto our systems yet for people who don’t normally file a tax return.
- You’re not eligible for a payment (read more about Eligibility).
If you receive the ‘Payment Status Not Available’ message and you know that you are eligible for the payout, then you should continue to check for status of a payment. The IRS is sending out payments weekly and estimate that it would take at least 20 weeks for them to disperse all of the payments across the nation. They are estimating this time frame will put us at about September for the final checks and direct deposits to be complete. Understand that the ‘Get My Payment’ tool only updates your stimulus status once a day. If you attempt to use the tool several times in the same day, you will eventually be locked out after 3 failed attempts or 5 login attempts within a 24-hour period and will receive the message, ‘Please Try Again Later’.
