First came “Where’s My Refund?”, a way for taxpayers to track refunds from their federal tax returns.
Now, with more than 80 million Americans due for coronavirus relief dollars, the Internal Revenue Service is going online again with a tracking service for those Economic Impact Payments.
“Get My Payment,” which is located on the IRS Web site (www.irs.gov) , gives taxpayers a quick way to discover how much they will receive in payments and when the deposits might arrive. It tracks either electronic payments or paper checks. To use “Get My Payment,” taxpayers must provide a few identification details, including Social Security Account Number and date of birth.
The online tool also allows people to arrange for direct deposit to their bank accounts if they didn’t ask for direct deposit on recent income tax returns, the IRS said. The agency is taking its delivery information primarily from 2018 and 2019 (if filed) returns.
People who did not file income tax returns for those years still are eligible to receive the payments. They can use another program called ’The Non-filers: Enter Payment Info tool.” It was designed for people who aren’t required to submit tax returns — perhaps because of too little income, the IRS said.
Last week, the tax agency also announced that people receiving Social Security retirement, disability or survivor benefits can expect their Economic Impact Payments to be paid automatically “in the near future,” even if they did not file recent tax returns.
The Economic Impact Payments range to $1,200 per individual and to $2,400 for a married couple filing jointly. Parents also receive another $500 for each child under the age of 17. Payments phase out at $75,000 of adjusted gross income (on tax returns) for individuals and $150,000 for joint returns.
Find “Get My Payment” at https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment and more information about the payments at https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payment-information-center .
As might be expected, the “Get My Payment” site is under heavy use now, as the first payments are going out. Sometimes, it also can’t track one because the data for it is not yet available, The IRS says it is updating the site once a day, usually in the early morning hours.